Deleting a customer does not delete their reviews correctly

[torvista]

When I delete a customer, in the reviews table customers_id is set to NULL and the corresponding review in review_description is not changed at all.
As it stands this does not seem correct.

In the harsh light of GDPR I would suggest the following:

1) deletion of orders and customers should not delete the db record (leaving a hole) but overwite the data with "deleted" or "deleted by request" to void having to trap holes with the code.

2) For reviews I only show the forename and one letter of the surname.
Reviews are valuable and perhaps on customer deletion the name could be replaced with "Anonymous" to keep the review?

Discuss!

[dbltoe]

I wouldn't think of this as a bug OR a violation of privacy. IMHO, it would depend on the circumstances under which the customer leaves.

When someone gives a review, they are doing just that - giving. I feel that opinion then becomes the property of the store owner to do with what he/she wants. If it's an unjust review, you probably would not approve its display in the first place. If the customer expressly requests the removal of a review, I would certainly accommodate them. Otherwise, in my opinion, it should stay.

The fact that you use firstname and initial of the last name should suffice. Unless it's preceded by HRM, it should be close enough to anonymous.

I'm sure that there could also be some text on the reviews page explaining the site's usage of information.

[torvista]

When someone gives a review, they are doing just that - giving.

Yes, I would agree with that, there is no question that "they have given their express consent" - the key aspect of GDPR.

So this boils down to being happy about the customer id being set to null.

[davewest]

So this boils down to being happy about the customer id being set to null.

Some time back I decided reviews and testimonials should not need accounts and modified the code some for checking such. I even set the name field to accept Guest. I don't auto insert account holder name at all. Thus the customer ID field is 0 for both.. Both require admin review before going live and I have filtered out user entered spam, but not to the point of going back to account holds only. The only thing I think needs to be added is making the name field editable in admin.

[torvista]

Actually in customers.php I find this block of code

if (isset($_POST['delete_reviews']) && ($_POST['delete_reviews'] == 'on')) {//steve where is this set?          $reviews = $db->Execute("select reviews_id                                   from " . TABLE_REVIEWS . "                                   where customers_id = '" . (int)$customers_id . "'");          while (!$reviews->EOF) {            $db->Execute("delete from " . TABLE_REVIEWS_DESCRIPTION . "                          where reviews_id = '" . (int)$reviews->fields['reviews_id'] . "'");            $reviews->MoveNext();          }
          $db->Execute("delete from " . TABLE_REVIEWS . "                        where customers_id = '" . (int)$customers_id . "'");        } else { 

But, as far as I can see $_POST['delete_reviews'] is never used anywhere so this is some redundant code.