Send to Friend

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Tagged: send to friend

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May 26, 2018 at 1:42 am #432227

justmark
Full Member

Post count: 375

I notice this function has been removed. How is the “Send to Friend” function against the GDPR? I am not understanding this. It is more convenient than copying the link to an email. Because the email is unsolicited?

May 26, 2018 at 2:08 am #432230

Guust
Moderator

Post count: 29970

It allows one person to share the email address of another person I guess, without the consent of that other person. The other person never can give consent.
And it creates an email not sent by the “friend” but by the website, putting the website in potential breach if the recipient is a EU resident.

Thanks

May 26, 2018 at 2:14 am #432232

justmark
Full Member

Post count: 375

Crap. That was a useful function. Technically any email I send to someone is sent without their consent. I wonder if it would be possible to have the email sent though the website but from the registered user sending it. ie the user sending it would have to be logged in and the sending email address was the user’s address?

May 26, 2018 at 5:55 am #432247

Alex Rollin
Moderator

Post count: 27815

I wonder if it would be possible to have the email sent though the website but from the registered user sending it. ie the user sending it would have to be logged in and the sending email address was the user’s address?

This is not feasible.

I simpler solution is a mailto link that leaves the choice up to the user.

May 26, 2018 at 9:30 am #432257

justmark
Full Member

Post count: 375

Agreed. This puts the user in control of whether they want to see the communication or not.

In addition I would make the “Send to Friend” feature an option in the GD Details Setting page. “Enable Send to Friend Yes/No?” If the setting is set to “Yes” then give the option “Make Send to Friend available only to registered users?” so that the feature is not visible to non-registered users if set.

The GDPR is about having control of your data. Your suggestion does that for the user and for those site owners who want to remove all risk and doubt, they don’t have to enable the feature at all which gives them that control.

In my opinion this is much better than just completely removing the feature from GD.

May 28, 2018 at 10:07 am #432431

Stiofan O’Connor
Site Admin

Post count: 22956

It is not GDPR compliant and i can’t think of a way to make it GDPR compliant.
It was already removed from GDv2. There are many share plugins that can be used to replace it which can use many different options including a direct email which are far more appropriate.

Thanks,

Stiofan

May 28, 2018 at 11:46 am #432448

justmark
Full Member

Post count: 375

Hi Stiofan. True enough. I had been thinking about this and most probably people tend to share via social media over email anyhow. Good call.

June 7, 2018 at 7:57 pm #434147

Craig W
Expired Member

Post count: 22

It’s not pretty, but it is a workaround / solution to the GDPR issues with share with a friend.
Simply do not send the email from the website; instead, have the visitor send it directly.

Make the Send-to-a-Friend a standard html “mailto:” link that opens the visitor’s default email client to compose / send the email. Does not the mailto: link can include specific attributes for to: cc: subject: body: ?

This may not provide “ideal” functionality, but it should provide a useful workaround.

Thoughts?

Craig W.

June 8, 2018 at 11:02 am #434208

Stiofan O’Connor
Site Admin

Post count: 22956

Hi Craig,

That can be done in many ways and does not need to be part of the core functionality of GD.

Stiofan

June 8, 2018 at 3:32 pm #434247

Craig W
Expired Member

Post count: 22

Quite true.
Thanks Stiofan
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