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Ask HN: Removal of Sensitive Information in GitHub

by Alifatisk·3y ago·3 comments·view on hn ↗

Hi HN, I'll try to keep it as short as possible.

A couple of years ago, I started a organization on Github with a couple of internet friends on Github, we had a fun project we worked on. A year later, life took over and we all lost contact with each other and everyone left the organization on Github.

Recently I visited the old project again for memories and saw that they had published my first and last name with link to my Github profile on the README, I never agreed on that and it is very uncomfortable having my information public like that.

I tried to contact every single user but they all had removed both their github account and socials. So there is no way for me to reach them, and none of us has access to the organization anymore.

I tried to reach out to Github support team but they stated that they cannot remove any information nor give me access back (even though I was a member).

So my question to you is, what options do I have left? Have any of you experienced something similar before? How did you resolve it?

what is the license of the code? you might send a copyright violation notice as a way to work around gh's internal rules. alternatively, you might lean on gdpr or ccpa.

The code is under GPL but we all worked on it. Do you think GDPR could work?

Publishing personal data is a violation for sure. There is a certain scenario where you have given implicit permission for your name to be used, but I doubt that they have it. Also, you might revoke the license of the code, though I don't have an idea if this would give you the right to send a copyright violation notice. Depending on how important is that for you, consult a lawyer to make it the right way.

Edit: I mean to revoke the license of your contributions.