BecomeAnEX and the General Data Protection Regulation

[CommunityAdmin]

BecomeAnEX is committed to helping tobacco users in the US achieve their vision of a tobacco-free future. In light of a new international data protection law enacted by the European Union (EU), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we are updating site access for BecomeAnEX.

About GDPR

By now, you may have heard of the GDPR, a new EU data privacy law that goes into effect on May 25, 2018 and that may have widespread impact on businesses around the world.  The regulation applies only to the treatment of personal data furnished to a business from data subjects who are situated in the EU.  The GDPR imposes numerous requirements on those businesses that are obligated to comply with the regulation.

What Does GDPR Mean for You? 

BecomeAnEX is not subject to the GDPR and has determined that it will not take the substantial steps necessary to comply with the regulation’s requirements.  Accordingly, if you are visiting BecomeAnEX.org from any EU-member country, unfortunately you will no longer be able to access BecomeAnEX.org or the EX Community, nor will you receive emails from BecomeAnEX or the EX Community when this law goes into effect on May 25, 2018. If you access the EX Community from an EU IP Address and will be affected by this change, we recommend you back up your data now, as you will lose access to the site on Friday.

To see your content:

Content you Authored

Content you Drafted

Content you Participated in

To save your content:

You can use your web browser print function (Ctrl+P or Cmd+P) and then choose the Save as PDF option. This will need to be done for every post you wish to retain. At this time, there is not any mass save option to bulk save or bulk print.

On behalf of the EX Team, we realize this may be disappointing. We recognize that supportive friendships have been made along people’s quit journeys over the last 10+ years. If you know someone who will be affected by this change, we recommend you reach out to them immediately so that you can set up alternative communication methods if you wish to stay in touch. We’ll still be on Facebook, and it may be a good way to stay in touch with those who are affected by this change.

How Can You Quit and Stay Quit Without BecomeAnEX?

We hope that you will continue your journey to become and stay tobacco-free!  There are numerous other proven online programs available to help tobacco users quit, hosted in the United States and around the world. 

While we cannot guarantee their availability to EU-based users, alternative evidence-based programs include: 

• Smokefree.gov
• Smokefree

If you have any additional questions about GDPR or these changes to EX, please reach out to Megan directly by email at Megan@becomeanex.org or EXProductManager via private message.

[gregp136]

How sad for those from the EU!

[Giulia]

This is very disheartening.  I tried to filter members by country, but didn't manage to get it to work.  Can you please tell us how to do that so that we may contact personally those members in the EU that have been long-term members here?  exproductmgr‌

[Roller831]

That stinks.

[kristen-9-7-15]

Oh wow.  How sad.

[CommunityAdmin]

You can sort by location here: https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/people?filterID=all~profile%5Blocation%5D 

There is no filter specifically for EU. You'll need to scroll through the list and see who reports being from Europe.  There may be some people that didn't put in a location so there may be some people who don't appear in the list. We'll be sending an email out later today so that more people are informed of this change even if they haven't indicated in their community profile a location.

Mark
EX Community Manager

[KTQeeyore]

This is horrible!   

[maryfreecig]

There has to be a work around. Has to be.

[johnnyRingo5]

I hate to hear this.  I came here from a wonderful quit site that shut down unexpectedly about three months ago and it was a horrible loss.  These online quit communities do great things for people.

I hope and pray our European members continue on with their great quits.  The most important thing is that everybody keeps their quits.  Smoke free life is the best way to live.

This is extremely sad news.  

[Giulia]

Will the content of EU members remain on EX, perhaps archived?  Or are they just going to be wiped off the face of our platform?  If Brexit does happen, for example, those in England could get back on. Mark‌

[CommunityAdmin]

Giulia wrote:

Will the content of EU members remain on EX, perhaps archived?  Or are they just going to be wiped off the face of our platform?  If Brexit does happen, for example, those in England could get back on. Mark

Giulia-

We're planning on leaving their content on the site however their personal information and contact info will likely be disassociated from their accounts.

If Brexit did happen, there could be a chance of reconnecting people to their old account. 

Mark
EX Community Manager

[Giulia]

Well at least their content, journey and wisdom will not be lost.  I'm glad of that.  Thanks for the info.

[Giulia]

So their username will remain the same and we can point people to their pages by the @ mention?  Or, since we all have a user number, will we (or they should the laws change) need to know that?  Mark‌

[CommunityAdmin]

At least temporarily their username will remain the same.  If you use the @mention and their username gets updated, the link will likely also update.  Yes everyone has a user number that won't change but those links were associated to the old elgg community and aren't necessarily valid any more. Each member has an BecomeAnEX numberID (smaller the number the longer you have been a member) and a JiveID but members aren't searchable by either of them.

Mark
EX Community Manager

[Giulia]

Thank you once again.

[Sdavisfl]

There are some laws that exist or will exist that I simply don't  understand and I don't think my age of 71 has anything to do with it. I do understand and believe in God's grace and pray for those who will be affected by this law, because I don't think I would be almost 60 days smoke free if it hadn't been for me accidentally discovering Ex. If you will be affected by this law, try very hard to stay strong and not give up, knowing Ex members are still praying for your success.