WhatsApp Groups And GDPR

[Square Ball]

How many club groups have been officially sanctioned by the clubs? They spring up everywhere, senior football, camogie, hurling for players, managers, coaches for all age groups, etc etc etc, set up by who ever. will the club be held responsible for any breaches of GDPR?

[AFM]

Has any clubs been informed by their county board to stop using this facility? No indication that my own club is intending to stop its use. I guess it's a case of wait and see what others are doing.

My kids are in hurling, football and camogie all communication was through whatsapp for years now we are getting text messages.

[thewobbler]

My best guess on what has happened here.

Within the GAA hierarchy:

- A communications officer has attended a GDPR seminar and in the cloud of confusion started pressing panic buttons.

- They then sought legal counsel, who without any case law to refer to for sporting organisations, has urged caution. Which they're right to do, as the fundamental principles of GDPR is not to put yourself in a position to collect or distribute sensitive data.

- Meanwhile a technology officer, who has been given the brief of making a GAA app, has come to the belief that if everyone uses it for communications, it will be roaring success. The fact that Facebook has split its communications app - for a variety of legal and user experience reasons - from its primary app has gone unnoticed. They can see the glory.

- Same communications officer is likely working closely with a marketing / advertising agency on the core app, who know very little about technology, but are determined to milk this relationship for whatever it can, and they will make it as feature rich as possible, again ignoring the basic principles of app design, that less is more.

- A finance officer has caught wind of all this and has begun devising a masterplqn to monitize the app through advertising, club fees and add-one. Like the technology officer, he is working on the belief that it communications comes on board, there will be up to half a million users across Ireland. Ker-ching.

- Together they've presented their vision to the GAA top brass. Armed with all of the above it seems like a fairly solid proposal. Throw in the scare stories about about mentors accidentally share tasteless jokes and porn with parents' groups (and every user of WhatsApp understands how easily this is done), and a party line is quickly formed.

- So they're now going after it. "It" being a collection of substandard tools patched together through a dreadful app interface. It will be dreadful, because when you've a four inch screen, it's extraordinarily difficult to make a product that is both feature rich and easy to use.

- And when anyone from the GAA is questioned about why they are gong ahead they will jump between scare stories about GDPR (followed by a "we have taken legal advice", with no further comment) and scare stories about unsuitable content (which can just easily happen through email, an official GAA service ).

It's balderdash folks.

It will cost millions and be binned within 2 years.

[yellowcard]

My best guess on what has happened here.

Within the GAA hierarchy:

- A communications officer has attended a GDPR seminar and in the cloud of confusion started pressing panic buttons.

- They then sought legal counsel, who without any case law to refer to for sporting organisations, has urged caution. Which they're right to do, as the fundamental principles of GDPR is not to put yourself in a position to collect or distribute sensitive data.

- Meanwhile a technology officer, who has been given the brief of making a GAA app, has come to the belief that if everyone uses it for communications, it will be roaring success. The fact that Facebook has split its communications app - for a variety of legal and user experience reasons - from its primary app has gone unnoticed. They can see the glory.

- Same communications officer is likely working closely with a marketing / advertising agency on the core app, who know very little about technology, but are determined to milk this relationship for whatever it can, and they will make it as feature rich as possible, again ignoring the basic principles of app design, that less is more.

- A finance officer has caught wind of all this and has begun devising a masterplqn to monitize the app through advertising, club fees and add-one. Like the technology officer, he is working on the belief that it communications comes on board, there will be up to half a million users across Ireland. Ker-ching.

- Together they've presented their vision to the GAA top brass. Armed with all of the above it seems like a fairly solid proposal. Throw in the scare stories about about mentors accidentally share tasteless jokes and porn with parents' groups (and every user of WhatsApp understands how easily this is done), and a party line is quickly formed.

- So they're now going after it. "It" being a collection of substandard tools patched together through a dreadful app interface. It will be dreadful, because when you've a four inch screen, it's extraordinarily difficult to make a product that is both feature rich and easy to use.

- And when anyone from the GAA is questioned about why they are gong ahead they will jump between scare stories about GDPR (followed by a "we have taken legal advice", with no further comment) and scare stories about unsuitable content (which can just easily happen through email, an official GAA service ).

It's balderdash folks.

It will cost millions and be binned within 2 years.

Couldn't agree more.

[TheGreatest]

My best guess on what has happened here.

Within the GAA hierarchy:

- A communications officer has attended a GDPR seminar and in the cloud of confusion started pressing panic buttons.

- They then sought legal counsel, who without any case law to refer to for sporting organisations, has urged caution. Which they're right to do, as the fundamental principles of GDPR is not to put yourself in a position to collect or distribute sensitive data.

- Meanwhile a technology officer, who has been given the brief of making a GAA app, has come to the belief that if everyone uses it for communications, it will be roaring success. The fact that Facebook has split its communications app - for a variety of legal and user experience reasons - from its primary app has gone unnoticed. They can see the glory.

- Same communications officer is likely working closely with a marketing / advertising agency on the core app, who know very little about technology, but are determined to milk this relationship for whatever it can, and they will make it as feature rich as possible, again ignoring the basic principles of app design, that less is more.

- A finance officer has caught wind of all this and has begun devising a masterplqn to monitize the app through advertising, club fees and add-one. Like the technology officer, he is working on the belief that it communications comes on board, there will be up to half a million users across Ireland. Ker-ching.

- Together they've presented their vision to the GAA top brass. Armed with all of the above it seems like a fairly solid proposal. Throw in the scare stories about about mentors accidentally share tasteless jokes and porn with parents' groups (and every user of WhatsApp understands how easily this is done), and a party line is quickly formed.

- So they're now going after it. "It" being a collection of substandard tools patched together through a dreadful app interface. It will be dreadful, because when you've a four inch screen, it's extraordinarily difficult to make a product that is both feature rich and easy to use.

- And when anyone from the GAA is questioned about why they are gong ahead they will jump between scare stories about GDPR (followed by a "we have taken legal advice", with no further comment) and scare stories about unsuitable content (which can just easily happen through email, an official GAA service ).

It's balderdash folks.

It will cost millions and be binned within 2 years.

Exactly.

It is he greatest communication tool used for team organisation since the inception of the GAA, every team has one, From Inter county to Junior Z, its excellent and it will not be changed.

GDPR was not meant for this, people taking it to the extreme.

[highorlow]

It's the new snowflake world we are now in.

[AFM]

It's the new snowflake world we are now in.

You will offend J70. 

[BenDover]

We've made the move to Heja for team communication, some nice functionality like schedule planner where parents can indicate if their child is going / not going. No more counting thumbs up on WhatsApp. Only thing I can see lacking is the ability to post videos.

[thewobbler]

We've made the move to Heja for team communication, some nice functionality like schedule planner where parents can indicate if their child is going / not going. No more counting thumbs up on WhatsApp. Only thing I can see lacking is the ability to post videos.

Congratulations. Your club is now engaged in delivering messages to its members through an untrusted and inconvenient communications channel.

You can enjoy, for now, the fact that you're flying under the radar with the GAA's top brass, while trading off their lack of interest in this platform, with your members' lack of interest in this platform.

[Last Caress]

We've made the move to Heja for team communication, some nice functionality like schedule planner where parents can indicate if their child is going / not going. No more counting thumbs up on WhatsApp. Only thing I can see lacking is the ability to post videos.

I'm in four underage groups and I will admit it's a real pain when about 50 parents reply to each group. Plus there is a number who will post photos and videos of the games, teams and players. I would imagine that's one of the issues that could be a problem (under child protection rules).

[The PRO]

I have it on good authority from somebody quite senior working in the Data Protection Commission that they have never been asked their opinion on this by the GAA and that if they were the status quo could very easily be allowed to remain in place simply by asking people for permission to opt in to a group or groups.

[five points]

Plus there is a number who will post photos and videos of the games, teams and players.

I can't honestly see what the problem is with videos of games being freely available online.

[thewobbler]

Plus there is a number who will post photos and videos of the games, teams and players.

I can't honestly see what the problem is with videos of games being freely available online.

I believe his gripe is not related to the contents of videos (and photos) but to the volume of them posted in parents' groups.

Something that can be quickly knocked on the head with a club / admin policy.

[five points]

I believe his gripe is not related to the contents of videos (and photos) but to the volume of them posted in parents' groups.

Something that can be quickly knocked on the head with a club / admin policy.

"No posting of extraneous or unnecessary stuff in our whatsapp groups" is a difficult one to enforce. None of this is a problem once users mute their app notifications.

[thebackbar1]

I have it on good authority from somebody quite senior working in the Data Protection Commission that they have never been asked their opinion on this by the GAA and that if they were the status quo could very easily be allowed to remain in place simply by asking people for permission to opt in to a group or groups.

I'm not a GDPR expert, but I guess one of the concerns is that when you join your kid up for the u10s you're not being informed that your number is going to be added to the u10s whatsapp group where every other parent parent can view your number. I do think this  is a legitimate concern for some people. The local school teacher may not wish for everyone to view their mobile number. I have seen some prominent GDPR experts whose opinion i respect on twitter saying the gaa are right in regard to their concerns.

However GAA HQ seem very naive to think they can build their own inhouse communications system that will need to be secure and user friendly.