# Contact Service Privacy This documentation does not warrant completeness or correctness. Please report any missing or wrong information using the [ILIAS issue tracker](https://mantis.ilias.de) or contribute a fix via [Pull Request](docs/development/contributing.md#pull-request-to-the-repositories). ## General Information - The "Contact" component of ILIAS provides a channel for users to contact each other. - The component only handles the contact and sharing of information via the contact functionality. There are multiple other types of context-related contacts in ILIAS that are not part of this component, such as course member/tutor relations or test correction processes, etc. - The global activation of the component can be checked with the "Administration > Communication > Contact > Activate 'Contacts'" setting. - The personal activation of the component can be toggled with the "Profile and Privacy > Visibility > Allow Contact Requests" setting. - Contacts can be requested within member lists, like in courses and groups. - Furthermore, when a user profile is published, it gives all users access to the profile via the "Who is online" tool and, through that, the option to request contact with that profile. - This can be activated in your profile under "Profile and Privacy > Publish Profile > Visible for logged-in Users" setting. - This setting does not allow or prevent the contact request itself. - A contact can be used for two actions: - You can add contacts to your mailing lists - You can invite contacts to chatrooms - Furthermore, approved contacts are shown within the "Who is online?" tool. - The component does not track or recognize the data being exchanged through emails or chats. It has no information about the source of the content (i.e. a course) or whether it includes user-related data. ## Data being stored - Each contact request is stored, including the ID of the requesting user and the ID of the requested user, as well as a timestamp of the request time. This does not require the consent of both target users. - When the requested user actively ignores the request (by choosing the option "Ignore contact"), this data entry is added with an "ignore" flag. - After confirmation, each contact is stored, including the ID of the requesting user and the ID of the requested user as well as a timestamp of the request time. - The storage of requests and approved contacts are separated. - Each contact added as an entry to a mailing list is stored using the user_id. - Any user relations that originate from the contact are not related to or dependent on the active contact. There is no traceable relation of contacts within other components. ## Data being presented - Contact data is presented in "Communication > Contacts" and in a separate section of the "Who is online?" tool. - The presentation includes a presentation of the user's profile (restricted depending on the user's profile publishing settings) and control elements presenting the user's options for contact requests ("Confirm Contact"/"Ignore Contact"). - Initially the options are restricted to requesting a contact. - When a contact is requested, the requesting user has the option to cancel the request. - When a contact is requested, the requested user has the option to actively ignore or confirm the request. - When a contact is confirmed, both contacts have the option to unlink the contact without any further consent. - Each party can detect a change of the contact relation within its own contact options. The only exception to this is the active ignoring of a request. The requesting user can not detect if his request was ignored. - A list of all contacts is shown as a selection when a user adds members to a newly created mailing list. - The "Look up Users" functionality within the composition of a mail can provide a list of contacts if such matches with the search term exist. - Furthermore, a list of user accounts with membership assignment is shown by clicking the "List Members" action for an objects within the "My Courses/My Groups" view, accessible directly from the "Compose" view of "Mail" component, or by clicking the "Contacts" link item in the main bar. For each account, the username is presented. - Additionally, full names are presented according to the "Profile and Privacy > Publish Profile > Visible for logged-in Users" setting. The "Contact Status" is shown as well. - The "Mail to Members" view of membership-enabled object types, which is also located in the "Contact" component, provides a list of participating user accounts. For each account, the username is presented and additionally, the full name, if published. - This information does not show any information about contact relations. - Contacts are referenced within the mail service in the sub tab "Contacts". - A contact relation cannot be perceived within the user interface by any user other than the contacts themselves. ## Data being deleted - If a contact request is canceled, the stored entry is removed without any traceable footprint. - If a contact request is ignored, the flagged entry in the database will be preserved to prevent a repeated contact request from the same initiator. - If a contact is unlinked by one of the contacts, the stored entry is removed without any traceable footprint. - Any user relations that originate from the contact are not affected by its deletion. This includes preservation in mailing lists and participation within chatrooms. - If a user is deleted, their contacts, sent and received contact requests, mailing lists and mailing list participations are removed without any traceable footprint. ## Data being exported - The component does not provide any export option itself. - A contact request can trigger a notification, which may be displayed as a "Toast" to the requested user. A "Toast" is a notification element that contains the user's presentation name (depending on their visibility settings) and the user's intention for the contact request. - The notification is handled by the "Notification" component, is self-persistent, and therefore not dependent on the origin request. - Otherwise, the information of contacts is not stored in any export of the related components like "Mail", "Chatroom" or "ILIASObject".