Do you have a policy about deleting/anonymizing accounts for if people request that?
Accounts can be anonymized if a forum user requests it 
If they decide to return, the anon account can’t be re-opened though and they have to start at trust level “basic”.
You can also simply close your account without going anon, your current stats will be preserved and you can claim it back if you have your email and password for it.
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Is the policy to only anonymize accounts then, not delete them even if someone requests that?
Have been hearing some arguments with some folks saying that laws like the GDPR require people can have their forum accounts deleted, however technically this isn’t always true the GDPR is about personal data being deleted not necessarily forum accounts/posts.
The system only allows the deletion of accounts with less than 5 posts. With more posts, the account can only be closed and anonymized, though we only anonymize upon request. Anonymization clears all profile data so the account is unrecoverable.
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Alright good to know, thanks for explaining that.
… European. This forum is hosted and beholden to American privacy law. Bear in mind it is also privately owned as BALG is not a public company and the laws are again different.
It’s not possible for a company to attempt to keep the laws of hundreds of countries who allow access to American sites through the internet.
If you have a concern and a vpn with other personal precautions isn’t meeting those, given your data can be intercepted by anyone watching the data seams, your only real option is to not create accounts and never post anywhere. Also throw your phone away and definitely never get voice control for anything.
This site is visited by thousands of web crawlers daily, actual issues with Balg the company here is the least of your worries.
If you have more concerns I would suggest putting in a ticket at the main BALG site help desk.
We are volunteer mods and do not work for BALG, and cannot legally speak for the company. This here is our opinion and truthful as far as we know. We do not work under any kind of contract and any relationship is entirely at will on both sides.
Post closed and unlisted.
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