Joachim van de HaterdWhen we introduced Group-Office 6.8, we released our Privacy Settings module as well. Time for a belated introduction.
Background
In the EU, there is the GDPR guideline, which among other things requires organizations to protect personal data in their systems. One of our customers requested a module to make this a bit easier for their Group-Office administrators. This module allows the automatic deletion of personal data after a certain period of time.
If you are not subject of the GDPR or equivalent regulation, but still care for the privacy of your personal data, you may benefit from this module as well.
Installation
The Privacy Settings module can be found in the Business package. You need a groupoffice-pro license to use it. The only dependency is the address book module.
When this module is installed, you will notice that two new address books are created: Incoming and Trash. Whenever a new contact is created, they are stored in the Incoming address book. After a certain period, it will be moved automatically to Trash. It is up to the end user to store it in another address book if necessary.
Be default, the administrator user is the only user with access to the Trash address book. This address book can be fully emptied by the administrator, thereby fully purging a contact from the system.
Alternatively, a deletion date can be added to a contact, regardless of the address book it is part of. If the deletion date is reached, the contact will be moved to Trash as well.
Configuration
In the System Settings screen, the administrator can set which address books to monitor for stale contacts, as well as the time period after which a stale contact is deleted. Finally, you can set a warning period before a contact actually gets deleted.