@julian I inspected my database export as well as the source code in github. I found a couple of occurences where IP addresses are stored into the database. According to many articles (e.g. https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/gdpr-web-server-logs) this is critical and should be minimized. I can not judge if this is compliant to the GDPR or not. Maybe only a lawyer can finally clarify, but I would like to avoid any kind trouble and reduce the risk for my forum.

My analysis might not be right. Please correct me, if my view and understanding of the source code is not correct!

IP Address of visitors is recorded to calculate the total Visitor Count

IP address is stored in:
https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/blob/12337302a7e746e36cd4fb5bd0e48fbb3707fae6/src/analytics.js#L40

Used by:
https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/blob/12337302a7e746e36cd4fb5bd0e48fbb3707fae6/src/controllers/admin/dashboard.js#L84

Deleted:
never

IP Address of registered users is logged on each Login

IP address is stored in:
https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/blob/12337302a7e746e36cd4fb5bd0e48fbb3707fae6/src/user/admin.js#L16
and
https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/blob/12337302a7e746e36cd4fb5bd0e48fbb3707fae6/src/user/admin.js#L20

logged by:
https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/blob/12337302a7e746e36cd4fb5bd0e48fbb3707fae6/src/controllers/authentication.js#L324

Used by:
https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/blob/v1.9.x/src/user/approval.js

Deleted:
Only on user deletion in https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/blob/12337302a7e746e36cd4fb5bd0e48fbb3707fae6/src/user/delete.js#L206

IP Address is stored on events.log() call

IP address is stored in:
many lcode locations

Used by:
Admin panel Event History

Deleted:
From Admin panel

Summary

Out of above IP address usage, the first seem to me as most critical regarding GDPR compliance, as the IP address of visitors is stored forever without consensus. The purpose (counting unique visitors) from my perspective does not justify the storage. As a solution, a hash function could be applied to the IP address and the hash is stored in the database. With this you can still calculate the unique visitors, while not storing the IP address for visitors at all.

The two other usages can justified to some extend, but from my understanding the storage duration should be limited to appropriate time which depends on the purpose. The current policy to delete on request only, does not look compliant to me. I propose to introduce a mechanism, which deletes the login IP addresses as well a the event log after a certain period of time, configurable via ACP.

What do you think?

@julian I still have some doubts, but I need to dig deeper into this topic . I will export the database of my forum and check what is stored there and do some code reading in the nodebb sources. I will come back to you, if I still have concerns after that.

@julian Many thanks for your answer and pointing out the DPA. I really appreciate, that the GDPR is professionally addressed by you guys !

Nevertheless, I am not an data protection expert. I also might want to "over-fullfill" the GDPR, but as IP addresses need to be considered as personal data, I feel the need to somehow have control over this data. Limiting the storage duration and/or remove this data on request, seem to me like a requirement to be fully GDPR compliant. Is it planned to make this possible?

I am not sure it is that easy. It think the GPDR requires, that the purpose of the collected data is clearly documented, and duration of the storage is "for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed".

Both I am currently not able to describe in the declaration of data protection of my forum. Can you help me out on that?

The GDPR states that IP addresses should be considered personal data. In the latest nodebb version 1.9.1 I do not find this adressed. In the account information in my forum, I can see a list of recent IP-addresses for all my users. I do not find settings to limit the storage duration, remove this data, etc. Do I overlook something in the ACP?

Any help and guidance would be much appreciated !

Not easy, but managable if you use a mongo database .

I did the same. I installed mongo 3.2 in an Ubuntu (virtual) environment. In my local development environment, I did not enable the mongo security setting. This allows me to do the database administration without authentication. Of course you should not do this in your productive environment!

Create your initial setup as documented. Configure everything according to your needs to the desired state before import.

Then shutdown nodebb and login to mongo:

use nodebb
db.copyDatabase("nodebb", "nodebb-backup-171003")

Now you have a copy, you can restore any time and can start testing your import tool.

To revert your changes, first shutdown nodebb and login to mongo:

use nodebb
db.dropDatabase()
use nodebb-backup-171003
db.copyDatabase("nodebb-backup-171003", "nodebb")

You can also switch between the copies of the nodebb databases easily by editing the file config.json.

Good luck!

@Adam-Poniatowski: You might want to check browser-console-errors-after-v1-6-0-upgrade as well. I had the same issue, and I could solve it with a fix in nodebb.

I observed the same after updating my board to v1.6.0, yesterday. I decided to cherry pick commit https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/commit/dc87d7fc0f86d282553e40ba0f50d1bd4de9c3c1

This solved the issue!

@PitaJ: Thanks for providing this commit!

0 pitaj committed to NodeBB/NodeBB

Use .js instead of .jst

Fix #5934

After looking deeper into the issues, I found the root cause of the first two issues in an invalid html code inside the container of one of my used widgets! So no plugin or v1.6.0 problem !

The third issue "In case of a page footer, the global footer is shown on top of the page footer" seem to be a valid finding. But it is not critical for me. I will raise a bug on github.

After upgrading nodebb from v1.5.2 to v1.6.0 and updating the plugin to 0.5.3, the layout of some (but not all) of my custom pages are messed up!

• Sidebar is below the content
• The global footer is shown twice
• In case of a page footer, the global footer is shown on top of the page footer

Any hints or ideas?