Hi All
So ive been contacted by my cousin this weekend (as I'm he "in the know" about IT apparently....well I'm not but that's by the by) for some advice.
So whats happened....hes a member of a forum and has been posting/trolling on some threads regarding a certain person (lets call him X)who has no access to this particular forum....stupid boy.
In a weird twist of fate, on a particular thread he was outted or supposedly outted as a person....who some forum members thought he was. Only a first name....but he obviously denied it was him. As it actually wasn't. For eg one of the threads he was commenting on "X" the member of the gym (the one hes trolling) regarding his roid usage....when another poster stated "yeah ok John"...we know its you "John" etc (ive seen the posts).
My cousin then genuinely denied he was John....of which of course everyone jumped in stating "yeah alright John, we know its you".
Well unbeknown to my cousin there is another guy who he doesn't know called John who attends the gym.
This trolled member, goes into the gym, looking for the John he thinks it is, as hes been tipped off by someone to look at the forum.
Luckily this John wasn't about.
John was then informed of this, was very upset, spoke to the gym owners to sort this out/investigate.
This then prompted the Gym owner to get involved and asked for the forum to investigate who the username was and to then sort it out once they found out.
They did and found out it was my cousin....contacted him and let him know they knew and informed John who was on the forum under that name ie my cousin.
So inadvertedly my cousin through his stupidity has got into trouble, albeit he probably deserves it, a mad twist of fate has meant "X" has got the wrong person, an innocent person, but my Cousin didn't know John and wasn't believed on the forum.
My question is, has the Gym owner breached any data protection laws here...ie giving John the details once they have obtained then? as again this surely could spiral out of control if John then doesn't realise the whole story behind this twist of fate....plus if John also then discusses information with X (as I believe they will be meeting up as X feels bad now for "going to look for the wrong person").
I can understand that I believe the Forum Mods have the right to give the details to the Gym owner, but then after this where does the law stand with distribution?
I fear for my cousin, even though he has brought it on himself, hes a young, naïve lad and his banter isn't great at best.
Oh and "suck it up" etc, I'm expecting, but genuine information is of more benefit please. As an impartial person, trying to help family.
Executive summary
1: Cousin was on a gym forum talking smack about "X" for roid use.
2: People on gym forum mistake Cousin for a guy called "John".
3: People on gym forum tell "X" that "John" is talking smack about his roid use.
4: "X" flies into roid rage and goes to gym to confront the actual "John".
5: The actual "John" find out whats going on and complains to Gym.
6: Gym complain to forum.
7: Forum admins look into it and tell Gym who Cousin is.
8: Gym tell John.
9: Cousin is bricking it that "John" will relay information on to "X" who will take him to Suplex city.
So ive been contacted by my cousin this weekend (as I'm he "in the know" about IT apparently....well I'm not but that's by the by) for some advice.
So whats happened....hes a member of a forum and has been posting/trolling on some threads regarding a certain person (lets call him X)who has no access to this particular forum....stupid boy.
In a weird twist of fate, on a particular thread he was outted or supposedly outted as a person....who some forum members thought he was. Only a first name....but he obviously denied it was him. As it actually wasn't. For eg one of the threads he was commenting on "X" the member of the gym (the one hes trolling) regarding his roid usage....when another poster stated "yeah ok John"...we know its you "John" etc (ive seen the posts).
My cousin then genuinely denied he was John....of which of course everyone jumped in stating "yeah alright John, we know its you".
Well unbeknown to my cousin there is another guy who he doesn't know called John who attends the gym.
This trolled member, goes into the gym, looking for the John he thinks it is, as hes been tipped off by someone to look at the forum.
Luckily this John wasn't about.
John was then informed of this, was very upset, spoke to the gym owners to sort this out/investigate.
This then prompted the Gym owner to get involved and asked for the forum to investigate who the username was and to then sort it out once they found out.
They did and found out it was my cousin....contacted him and let him know they knew and informed John who was on the forum under that name ie my cousin.
So inadvertedly my cousin through his stupidity has got into trouble, albeit he probably deserves it, a mad twist of fate has meant "X" has got the wrong person, an innocent person, but my Cousin didn't know John and wasn't believed on the forum.
My question is, has the Gym owner breached any data protection laws here...ie giving John the details once they have obtained then? as again this surely could spiral out of control if John then doesn't realise the whole story behind this twist of fate....plus if John also then discusses information with X (as I believe they will be meeting up as X feels bad now for "going to look for the wrong person").
I can understand that I believe the Forum Mods have the right to give the details to the Gym owner, but then after this where does the law stand with distribution?
I fear for my cousin, even though he has brought it on himself, hes a young, naïve lad and his banter isn't great at best.
Oh and "suck it up" etc, I'm expecting, but genuine information is of more benefit please. As an impartial person, trying to help family.
Executive summary
1: Cousin was on a gym forum talking smack about "X" for roid use.
2: People on gym forum mistake Cousin for a guy called "John".
3: People on gym forum tell "X" that "John" is talking smack about his roid use.
4: "X" flies into roid rage and goes to gym to confront the actual "John".
5: The actual "John" find out whats going on and complains to Gym.
6: Gym complain to forum.
7: Forum admins look into it and tell Gym who Cousin is.
8: Gym tell John.
9: Cousin is bricking it that "John" will relay information on to "X" who will take him to Suplex city.
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