How to Manage Privacy and Member Data in BuddyNext

How to manage privacy and member data in BuddyNext, step by step. Under BuddyNext, then Members, then Privacy & Data, choose what search engines may index, show a cookie consent notice with your own wording, set how long closed moderation reports, read notifications and the email log are kept, and decide whether members can export their data or delete their account. Members find both tools under Settings, then Privacy, then Your data.

Transcript

In this tutorial you will manage privacy and member data in BuddyNext. One admin tab holds the rules, and each member gets the tools to export or delete their own data. You need BuddyNext, the free plugin. Every setting here has a working default. It takes about three minutes. There are six steps. Open Privacy and Data. Choose what search engines index. Show a cookie notice. Set how long records are kept. Let members export or delete. Then see it as a member. Step one. Open Privacy and Data. In your WordPress admin, open BuddyNext, then Members, then Privacy and Data. The first box is Private community. Its switch puts every community page behind the login page. It is off by default, so visitors can read what is public. Step two. Choose what search engines index. The list named Allow search engines to index has three choices. Everything, Public posts only, and Nothing. It starts on Public posts only. Everything adds public profiles and spaces. Nothing asks search engines to skip every community page. Step three. Show a cookie notice. In the Cookie consent box, the switch Show cookie consent notice is off by default. Turn it on where the law asks for one. Under it you can write your own Notice text, and rename the accept button and the privacy policy link. A visitor sees the notice until they accept it. Step four. Set how long records are kept. Data retention starts at 365 days. Closed moderation reports older than that are deleted for you. Open reports and the moderation log are never deleted. Member profiles and posts are not touched by this setting. The second list is for read notifications and the email log. Thirty, sixty or ninety days. It starts on sixty. Step five. Let members export or delete. The last box, Member Rights, has two switches. Allow members to export their data, and Allow members to delete their account. Both are on by default. Switch one off, and that tool is taken away from members. An administrator can still delete any account. Step six. See it as a member. Sign in as a member, open Settings, then the Privacy tab, and scroll to Your data. Export my data downloads one file with a copy of their profile, activity and connections. Nothing in the community changes. Delete account asks for their password first. It removes the account, their posts and their comments, and it cannot be undone. That is all six. Privacy and Data opened, search indexing chosen, the cookie notice found, retention set, member rights switched on, and the member side seen. Your members can now trust that their data is theirs to take or remove. Next in this series: See your community as a visitor.