*banned 4 MarkDown love* @design_RG@qoto.org

## To my friends and followers

...at my qoto account, **@design_RG** :

Good afternoon, I would like to inform you that, for personal reasons, I have submitted my resignation from my moderation position here at the mastodon instance, effective today.

I have been on a sabbatical for a period since late June from my work here at Qoto, but trust that my contribution has helped make it a better place.

I also use various other accounts and some of you might have seen posts originating from them, or blog announcements with my signature indicating my Publishing account at @rgx@muensterland.social .

That has been my main account since late June, 2020 -- as I felt I needed a smaller instance that allowed more time to focus and concentrate on Writing, which is currently my main personal interest and expression.

Since mastodon currently does not offer user data portability, my 7,200 posts at this instance will remain. And I might login occasionally, to check for personal messages or retrieve past posts. Anyone wishing to contact me can do so at the address referred above, which is likely to receive prompter attention.

### Thank you!

@hansw@mastodon.social

## A question for you, or anyone in the European Union, familiar with GDPR regulations.

I use an app that is based in Hong Kong, and is unique on what it offers (a pen pal application, nothing comparable out there that I know of).

Problem :

- they are a small team, and very responsive, creative and competent.
- but all of our data (the personal letters we write to penpals, in private and possibly with much personal info) is stored un-encrypted.
- PRC has some pretty strict legislation, and it's possible Intelligence agencies could demand a China based company to disclose any info in their systems.

And the question ;

- Does the GDPR regulation mandate that a user's data should be available for them to download on demand? (Facebook, and others offer this; I imagine it is probably mandated)

I would like to see if we could have a legal base, at least in some jurisdictions, to approach the team and ask them to offer the same personal data backup for download. Which currently, they don't offer.

If European legislation backs this, we would have a big start.

Ideal would be for all data to be end to end encrypted, like WhatsApp offers, for example. We don't have that yet; although it might be legitimate to ask.

Maybe @freemo might know something about this also?

## What The Netherlands would naturally look like...

...**if they hadn't built any dikes** to prevent flooding.

#Geography #Engineering