troll threatening legal action

ok, there was a member of my forum who i banned for spamming and harassing me on other forums. he told me to delete all of his posts and his account, which i refused to do, as it clearly says in the rules that i will not delete posts or accounts, if people dont want to be a member, they should not come back. it says nowhere in my hosts terms of service that i have to do that either, which i even asked about.

he just sent me an email "You have failed to remove my personal data as requested. I will now be contacting the Information Commissioners Office and make a complaint. They will no doubt be in touch shortly. You were asked to do so, you refused."

so what does it mean?

 

I'm not familiar with UK law, so can't advise you with much accuracy as to what you should do. I don't think he has any ground to stand on when it comes to his posts, However, looking over your UK IP Data laws briefly, it looks like the only thing he really has in his corner would be his account name / date of birth / and any other personal info. he willingly added to his profile.

I would like to think that if you have a strong TOS, his personal data wouldn't be an issue, as he's the one that added it himself, but again, I'm not all that knowledgeable on UK data laws.

A solution might be to change his personal data in his banned account so that there is no longer any data that relates to him as a person. As for the contributions of posts he made, you should be able to keep those with no worries.

"DISCLAIMER" The above is just my opinion, I'm not an attorney and not very familiar with UK ip Data laws, so it would be best to consult with a local attorney in your area.

 

i already changed his email address, just to stop him whining about it, and his date of birth is completely fake anyway cause he mentioned being at college in the 80's yet his birthdate says he was born in 1982.

my forum is not hosted in the uk though, even though i live there

 

Personally I would think that you should be fine with those changes. The sad part is that trolls pop up everywhere and most times it's people that did something wrong to get banned and then gets upset with the authority figure that banned them and began a crusade to lash out at them in an attempt for justice (Even though they, them self are the ones at fault).

We have this problem in the USA a lot, especially in counties that only charge $20.00 to $100.00 to file a civil law suit. It's like playing the lottery to trolls, they try and find the smallest reason to sue to get even with someone that caught them or made them mad. Some just go around looking for newborn companies to file against to try & win some money in a filing. It's getting out of control here.

Your TOS is your back bone and safe haven, as long as your TOS protects you from these types of attacks, you'll be fine. It's just very annoying to have to deal with these people. Keep in mind, the bigger and more known you get, the more people that will paint a target on your back. That's just the way life's blueprinted business in this day & age sadly.

I hope all goes well for you, definitely keep us all posted on the findings / outcome.

 

i dont think hes going to do it. apparently he is too poor to afford to do that and seems to have some sort of problems, as he has tried this on every single forum he has been on, and never followed through with his threats.

 

I don't think he actually contacted the authorities because you didn't want to remove his info. That would be foolish.