GDPR Updates

27 June 2018

PostgreSQL Europe stores and processes data, and therefore we had to revisit the processes as the European General Data Protection Regulation came live in May 2018.

Two areas, or services, had to be revisited, in order to be sure that we comply with the regulation.

First we store membership data for every member of PostgreSQL Europe. After carefully looking at the data, we determined that we only store the data which is required to provide this service to our members, and keep them informed - as example about renewing their membership or send information about the General Assembly.

The second, and larger area is the conference system. We always strived to only ask for the data which is necessary to enable visitors to go to our conferences. However as part of the compliance effort we decided that we can retire or anonymize certain data from past conferences, which is no longer required. In particular we will:

• Anonymize data about t-shirt sizes
• Anonymize data about special food / dietary needs
• Add a flag to the registration system that a visitor does not want to appear on pictures: this will produce a visible icon on the visitor badge, and help other visitors to determine that this person wishes to remain private. And although we as a conference organizer cannot enforce that other people don’t take pictures, this will hopefully help other visitors deciding if a picture is appropriate.
• We will no longer ask visitors for a phone number (that was already optional in the past), but we will continue asking speakers for a phone number, in order to get in touch with them if necessary. The phone number will be deleted after the conference.

We can’t delete certain other data, for example names and addresses on invoices, and general accounting data. These are necessary to keep our financial records intact.

For scrubbing the conference data we decided on a half-automatic process. Shortly after a conference ends, a cron job will remind organizers to cleanse the data. The admin interface provides an option for that. Using this option, all data mentioned above is anonymized or deleted, and this process can’t be reversed.

Conference Trademarks

03 May 2018

As part of our ongoing efforts to ensure the quality and reputation of the conferences organised by PostgreSQL Europe and the various other groups we work with, we have registered a number of trademarks:

• PGDay
• PGConf
• Postgres Conference
• PostgreSQL Conference
  
  

Use of these trademarks is free of charge to anyone organising a PostgreSQL event provided they uphold the community ideals of openness and fairness. The policy for use of the trademarks can be viewed here.

We hope that PostgreSQL enthusiasts will be able to recognise these marks as a sign of an event that they will want to attend.

Major PostgreSQL Europe Board Initiatives

07 February 2018

In order to dispel some of the mystery concerning our work, the PostgreSQL Europe board has decided to publish details of some of the less visible current initiatives to improve our ability to run conferences and to promote and educate people on PostgreSQL.

Background

Over the past 10 years, PostgreSQL Europe has run a large number of conferences. This includes PGConf.EU, Nordic PGDay, FOSDEM PGDay, pgDay.Paris, and pgconf.de. During this time we’ve uncovered a number of issues that make it more difficult to fulfill our mission.

VAT

Because our yearly turnover exceeds a government set limit, the French authorities have required us to start handling VAT for almost all transactions. The implementation of this step was painful, as we received inconsistent and conflicting information from the authorities as well as from our accountants as to when and why different taxes and tax rates must be applied. This has caused a significant increase in the administrative overhead for running our events and the administration as a whole.

Country

When operating in France, we are also bound by being able to communicate with the French authorities as well as our accountants, our bank etc in French. We have tried to find a solution for this almost since the organisation started, but have been unable to find a way to work around it. Given the increase in administration that this has led to, it has left us more dependent than ever on having one or more French-speaking people on the board of directors (primarily in the position of Treasurer) and makes it much harder to share the load of these specific tasks between different board members.

Brand Clarity

We are also aware of other conference series that are being run more as commercial events than Community events, and whilst we do not wish to stop anyone running PostgreSQL conferences however they see fit, we do want attendees, speakers and sponsors to know what they are signing up for when they register for events.

Initiatives

VAT & Location

In order to decrease the dependency on having a French speaking board member to interface with banks and authorities, we are actively looking into creating a separate entity in another English speaking European country. This entity is intended to handle the organisation of the conferences, and would be the legal contact for attendees, sponsors as well as venues and other contractors.

This step will allow us to greatly reduce the nominal transaction volume of PostgreSQL Europe, and go back to a modus where PostgreSQL Europe itself does not have to charge VAT. It is also intended to ease tax handling and reporting. This new entity will be wholly controlled by the PostgreSQL Europe association, and we are actively looking into ways that can be set up. This new entity will, of course, be bound by the same rules to handle VAT etc, but it will be situated in a jurisdiction where the administration is easier to work with remotely and in English.

In addition, this new entity will allow us to better support other communities, and if required, outsource certain tasks.

Brand Clarity

To ensure the recognition and quality of the PostgreSQL Europe events we’re working on a number of other fronts:

• We’ve been in discussion with other event organisers and worked with them to ensure their branding does not conflict with our own.
• We’re in the process of taking legal measures to protect our efforts and ensure users will continue to see the high standards they’ve come to expect from PostgreSQL Europe.
• We’re ensuring that our events all follow the Community Guidelines for Events published last year by the PostgreSQL Core Team. These guidelines exist to ensure that Community Events are run in an open manner that is fair to all speakers, attendees and sponsors. PostgreSQL Europe participated in the creation of these guidelines, and will, of course, continue to work with the Core Team and others in the community to evolve them in the future.

Further efforts

The PostgreSQL Europe Board continues to look at various ways of distinguishing the work and events the association undertakes from that of other organisations, and to minimise the risk, cost and effort to the Association by looking for simple, “best value” solutions for the work we do.

We do this as we hold a shared belief and passion for supporting and promoting PostgreSQL in a friendly, community environment. Whilst we want PostgreSQL to become as successful as possible, we strive to maintain a sense of close community and family in what we do. We strongly believe that other than the great technology that is PostgreSQL, our Community is one of the things that sets PostgreSQL apart from others in the market.