Fwd: FreeLists and the GDPR

[Carl Distefano cld@xxxxxxxx]

XyWrite List Subscribers:

Please read this notice from our host, FreeLists.org.

-------- Forwarded Message --------

Subject:	FreeLists and the GDPR
Date:	Sat, 26 May 2018 14:45:32 -0400
From:	John Madden mailto:jmadden@xxxxxxxx
To:	mailto:jmadden@xxxxxxxx mailto:jmadden@xxxxxxxx

As a FreeLists list admin for a list that has been active at least since January 2016, we're contacting you to let you know about updated policies and processes here at FreeLists as well one further communication most subscribers will soon receive. If you'd like to permanently discontinue any old lists, just let us know. As always, you can reach us via email at mailto:staff@xxxxxxxx with any questions.

With the GDPR now in full effect we're actually late to the "check out our new privacy policy" party but the good news is we've been hard at work over the last two months getting our act together.

If you're unfamiliar with the GDPR, please read about it here:https://www.eugdpr.org https://www.eugdpr.org While FreeLists is not based in the EU and has no presence there, we do serve both list owners and list subscribers who reside in the EEA (European Economic Area) and thus it affects all of us. We think the GDPR is a good thing! As you know we value privacy very highly and this new law swings the balance of power over personal data back to consumers where it belongs. Rather than carve out special policy just for Europeans, we think it's best to follow the EU's leadership on this and extend these protections to everyone.

You can read our new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service documents here:

https://www.freelists.org/privacy.htmlhttps://www.freelists.org/privacy.html

https://www.freelists.org/tos.htmlhttps://www.freelists.org/tos.html

What's Changing

• As of May 19th, 2018, all new subscribers to all lists have been directed through these documents and a consent process to keep a record of their acceptance of them.
  
• The subscriber actions form on your lists' List Pages (http://www.freelists.org/list/) are now less-susceptible to automated bot attacks. This should improve the quality of the experience.
• We've long offered a relatively wide-open subscription form you can host on your web site. Within a week or so these forms will redirect them will be redirected to your List Page to use the new consent system. We recommend you take these forms off your sites (and replace them with a link to your List Page) to avoid any confusion.
• The Web Login is really only useful to list admins. We'll be making that distinction more clear in the coming weeks.
  

Covering Existing Subscribers

Unfortunately our long-standing tradition of requiring opt-in to join a list is not sufficient and an extra step must be taken.

We'd like to make the transition to a post-GDPR world as smooth as possible for you. As soon as we can wrap up the code behind this -- hopefully by the end of this weekend -- we are going to start pulling in anyone who actively posts to a list by emailing them once after they post asking them to express their consent. If they ignore this or choose to opt out, we will unsubscribe them from the list. They're always free to subscribe again later, of course. This will get us a more gradual migration with slightly less disruption.

The next step is to ensure we've covered everyone else -- subscribers who haven't yet posted and been looped in through the above process -- with a similar message asking them to provide consent. This leads to a bit more disruption and potentially some subscriber loss. It's a necessary step though and we think the end state is an improvement.

This is where you come in!

• Please let your subscribers know they might be hearing from us. (Again, very new subscribers are already covered.)
  
• If you have any suggestions on how to proceed, things to be aware of, things perhaps we haven't thought of, please reach out to us.
  
• Some EU-based lists are anxious to get everyone covered quickly and we're here to help. Let us know if you'd like your lists to be covered immediately.
• We'll accomplish all of this without requiring any new accounts or logins or gathering of further, unnecessary data.
  

Here to Help

As always, we're here to help. Any concerns, suggestions, or questions, please feel free to reach out.

-- John