RE: Is git compliant with GDPR?

["Jason Pyeron" <jpyeron@pdinc.us>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Smith 
> Sent: Thursday, July 2, 2020 2:38 PM
> 
> On Thu, 2020-07-02 at 19:06 +0200, Jakub Trzebiatowski wrote:
> > But you said that git itself (as a software) doesn't fall under GDPR,
> > and that's the only thing I'm not sure about. I was wondering if
> > someone with a deeper understanding of GDPR would tell my _why_.
> > Because when interpreting the law literally, it sounds like it does.
> 
> You might be interested in reading the conversation that was had on
> this list the last time this subject was raised, in 2018:
> 
> https://public-inbox.org/git/5587534.o6tcmYBVvN@mfick-lnx/T/
> 
> I can't say whether it will satisfy you or not.

IMHO the most valuable bits were (I left out the discussion of changes to Git):

1: 

From: David Lang 
Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2018 18:38:55 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.02.1806061831340.7659@nftneq.ynat.uz> (raw) https://public-inbox.org/git/alpine.DEB.2.02.1806061831340.7659@nftneq.ynat.uz/#t

I'm going to take the risk of inserting actual real-world data into the mix 
rather than just speculation :-)

Here is an example of that the Rsyslog project is doing (main developers based 
in Germany). I'll say as someone who's day job has been very involved with GDPR 
stuff recently, this looks like a very reasonable statement to me. But I am not 
a lawyer. I will also say that I think it would be very reasonable for projects 
to not accept code from someone who doesn't give them any way to contact them 
later in case there is a question about authorship or licensing.

David Lang


https://github.com/rsyslog/rsyslog/pull/2746/files

LEGAL GDPR NOTICE:
According to the European data protection laws (GDPR), we would like to make you
aware that contributing to rsyslog via git will permanently store the
name and email address you provide as well as the actual commit and the
time and date you made it inside git's version history. This is inevitable,
because it is a main feature git. If you are concerned about your
privacy, we strongly recommend to use

--author "anonymous <gdpr@example.com>"

together with your commit. Also please do NOT sign your commit in this case,
as that potentially could lead back to you. Please note that if you use your
real identity, the GDPR grants you the right to have this information removed
later. However, we have valid reasons why we cannot remove that information
later on. The reasons are:

* this would break git history and make future merges unworkable
* the rsyslog projects has legitimate interest to keep a permanent record of the
   contributor identity, once given, for
   - copyright verification
   - being able to provide proof should a malicious commit be made

Please also note that your commit is public and as such will potentially be
processed by many third-parties. Git's distributed nature makes it impossible
to track where exactly your commit, and thus your personal data, will be stored
and be processed. If you would not like to accept this risk, please do either
commit anonymously or refrain from contributing to the rsyslog project.

2:

From: "Philip Oakley"
Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2018 23:28:43 +0100
Message-ID: <5F80881E35F941E88D9C84565C437607@PhilipOakley> (raw) https://public-inbox.org/git/5F80881E35F941E88D9C84565C437607@PhilipOakley/#t

> On Sun, Jun 03, 2018 at 04:28:31PM +0100, Philip Oakley wrote:
<snip/>
> You provide a lot of arguments about why it is not a necessity to have
> this, but let's assume it is; is there any actual problem you see with
> the proposal, except that someone would have to implement it?

It's the strawman problem. If it was a real 'real issue' then it would have 
already shown up with companies clamouring to pay folk to fix our (git's) 
latest problem. But the haven't, so I think it's a much more balanced issue.