Privacy: Suggested privacy policy text

[boonebgorges]

Parent ticket: #7698

WP has a new set of tools for creating a Privacy Policy page, as well as a help page where WP and plugins suggest text for that page. We should add to that page.

[boonebgorges]

7855.diff​ is a first pass at implementation. There are really a couple things to discuss here: implementation and content. See /wp-admin/tools.php?wp-privacy-policy-guide=1#wp-privacy-policy-guide-buddypress

First, regarding implementation, I've pretty much borrowed from WP. I stuck everything in the BP_Admin class. Theoretically, we could have different components register their own text, but this is liable to get complex, so I went with the simplest possible approach for the time being.

Second, regarding content. Much/most of the WP default content applies directly to us. I've only added what's BP specific. And I've focused on *personal data* and *cookies*, which I see as the two categories of content named in GDPR that are specific to BP (above and beyond retention and other policies that are not specific to BP).

For personal data, I broke out XProfile, Messages, and Activity - the three areas where we keep arguably personal data, which is subject to various visibility/privacy settings. (Groups and friends are more like relationships and don't really have content.) Suggestions regarding language, or anything I've left out, are quite welcome.

For cookies, I just searched the codebase and described all the places where we set cookies. The text, as it stands, describes our *actual* use of cookies. IMO we should change some of this behavior as part of the privacy push - I will open a new ticket momentarily - and if we change cookie behavior, we should change this text.

[boonebgorges]

Oh, one more thing about cookies: I've described what bp-legacy does. I'm pretty sure bp-nouveau doesn't use any of the activity cookies, and I'm not sure it uses the messages cookies. I figure it's better to overdescribe, but if anyone has a better idea, I'm all ears.

[boonebgorges]

The cookie review ticket is at #7856.

In light of that review, I've made some changes to the suggested text of the Cookies section. See 7855.2.diff​

[DJPaul]

Patch feedback:

• Use bp_admin_init for internal consistency? I know it has no impact.
• I think add_privacy_policy_content() should use a version comparison check, not a function_exists(). It's more consistent with what we do elsewhere, and when we increase the minimum WP version required, it makes searching for now-redundant compatibility blocks much easier.
• HTML escape all translations.
• Let's double-check if "deleted items are removed from the message thread for all recipients" is accurate, re: #7523

Wording is great, thank you for your work on this. :)

[boonebgorges]

In 12174:

Privacy: Provide suggested privacy policy text for BuddyPress.

See #7855.

[boonebgorges]

Thanks for the review, @DJPaul. Initial version is committed.

• Use bp_admin_init for internal consistency? I know it has no impact.
• I think add_privacy_policy_content() should use a version comparison check, not a function_exists(). It's more consistent with what we do elsewhere, and when we increase the minimum WP version required, it makes searching for now-redundant compatibility blocks much easier.

I made both changes.

• HTML escape all translations.

The pattern in WP and in other plugins I checked is to sanitize content through wp_kses_post() when adding via wp_add_privacy_policy_content(). Escape functions are thus redundant. But since our text doesn't contain any HTML, it doesn't hurt, so I added the escaping.

• Let's double-check if "deleted items are removed from the message thread for all recipients" is accurate, re: #7523

You're right - what I wrote in the patch is incorrect. I've removed it.

Wording is great, thank you for your work on this. :)

[hnla]

@boonebgorges Reads really well, great job and effort.

One really minor thought, where we state something like message visibility is it worth qualifying 'never' as 'never intentionally' i.e our intended approach is that it's not visible but...

[hnla]

Perhaps a silly question, if so forgive me, but what is the thinking about display of this text, WP introduces an option to generate a page along with a skeleton template of sections with some detail added for users to review and edit to thier requirements, how do we propose handling BP specific content, grabbing the WP content, merging BP sections into it before returning?

[boonebgorges]

@hnla Thanks for having a look!

One really minor thought, where we state something like message visibility is it worth qualifying 'never' as 'never intentionally' i.e our intended approach is that it's not visible but...

If private message content is visible to someone other than the intended recipient, it's a bug in BuddyPress (or the site) that should be fixed. I don't think that the privacy policy language should reflect that.

Perhaps a silly question, if so forgive me, but what is the thinking about display of this text, WP introduces an option to generate a page along with a skeleton template of sections with some detail added for users to review and edit to thier requirements, how do we propose handling BP specific content, grabbing the WP content, merging BP sections into it before returning?

WP's utilities for the privacy policy text allow plugins to register text that will appear on wp-admin/tools.php?wp-privacy-policy-guide=1. Next to each of these items appears a 'Copy' button, which takes the suggested text and puts it into the clipboard. Beyond that, it's up to the site admin to create the page, do additional edits, etc. See Screenshot_2018-06-24_12-55-31.png​

[hnla]

@boonebgorges thanks for the explanation. I dismissed that suggestion after thinking about it :).
Sterling job done!

[boonebgorges]

Let's call this good enough for now!