# Data Protection and Privacy

The Grid Forum Steering Group has reviewed OGF policies with respect to current international and regional data protection and privacy regulations and has come to the following conclusions. As with the policies of many large organizations, these will be subject to review and revision as our collective understanding of the applicability and implications of these requirements evolve, and as the regulations themselves continue to evolve and mature.&#x20;

To comply with requirements introduced by the European GDPR and State of California requirements with respect to information tracking and disclosure, we are providing to you the following information:

* OGF has a clear intellectual property rights policy in place that governs all contributions and communications. The relevant text, which covers the major points required to be addressed by the above regulations, has been in place since 2006 and can be accessed at the ["OGF IPR policy link" at the page linked here](ogf-intellectual-property-statement-and-copyright). It is our interpretation that this policy meets all GDPR requirements regarding information permissions granted to OGF by all participants in OGF activities. These are clearly spelled out in detail and available to you for your review.
* OGF does not have any current arrangements with business partners or any other external parties that require or enable data sharing. OGF's web sites track visitors for legitimate purposes of security and to allow response to and mitigation of potential intrusions, and do not use such information for marketing purposes. We do maintain records, largely in paper form, consisting of participation and permission records that allow OGF to verify agreement of OGF in-person meeting participants with the OGF IPR policy mentioned above.&#x20;
* Participation in an OGF email list or other electronic communication by you is also covered by the [IPR policy](ogf-intellectual-property-statement-and-copyright), as explicitly stated on our web site and in the policy itself. This condition was in place from the outset of the initiation of these resources, and does not require a further update to comply with the GDPR.&#x20;
* The Data Protection Officer for OGF is currently Dr. Wolfgang Ziegler, our Vice President for Community, who can be reached for purposes of responding to any data protection issues at [community@ogf.org](mailto:community@ogf.org)

Due to the nature of OGF as an open standards and best practices documentation organization, your participation explicitly grants OGF the right to retain certain identifying information, including signatures on the IPR policy agreements necessary for the organization to operate in an open public way. OGF reserves the right to retain this information to comply with legal requirements associated with its document development and assembly process. You do have the right to request access to the information that OGF holds for you, which consists of your membership in our email lists and the permissions granted to OGF by you in past meetings.&#x20;

You may unsubscribe from any individual OGF email list by following the links at the bottom of any message sent by the list. You can alternatively sign up for, or at your preference, change your email address or unsubscribe from any OGF email list by going to [https://www.ogf.org/mailman/listinfo](https://www.ogf.org/mailman/listinfo) and selecting the list. Each such page includes methods to subscribe to or unsubscribe from the list, get a password reminder, or change your subscription options according to your preferences.
