[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #53040: Prune IP and Email Addresses from Comments After X Days

[WordPress Trac]

#53040: Prune IP and Email Addresses from Comments After X Days
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 Reporter:  ispreview        |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  feature request  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal           |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Comments         |    Version:  5.7.1
 Severity:  normal           |   Keywords:
  Focuses:                   |
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 In order to aid compliance with new data privacy laws (e.g. GDPR in the EU
 / UK etc.) we would like a new feature, which when enabled would
 automatically prune the IP and email address details attached (privately)
 to anonymous comments after X days.

 A simple settings field to set the number of days would be all that is
 required to enable it, while leaving the field blank would be akin to
 disabling the feature.

 I am conscious, from my own website, that retaining such details can be
 helpful when tackling spammers/bots. But I also tend to find that, after a
 few months, there is no longer any real benefit to retaining that data and
 in our legal privacy policy we'd like to reflect a time period for its
 retention.

 The site we have currently has a decade worth of email and IP details
 associated to past comments and much of that could really do with being
 removed. Sadly, there is no easy approach for this, without wiping the
 comment and display names out too. In an ideal world we'd probably set a
 365-day (1 year) timer and comments older than that would lose their IP
 and email details.

 Alternatively, a way to partially obfuscate old IP and email address
 details would be another option. But retaining such data indefinitely is
 legally something that has become difficult to support.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/53040>
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