Responding to data subject requests

GDPR grants individuals several rights over their personal data. This page describes how to fulfil the most common requests using Nextcloud's built-in tools.

You must respond to subject access requests within one month. If a request is complex or you receive a high volume, you can extend this by a further two months, but you must inform the requester within the first month that an extension is needed and explain why. You cannot charge a fee for complying unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

Right of access (Article 15)

A user can view most of their own personal data directly in Nextcloud:

Profile and account info — Personal Settings → Personal Info.
Files — the Files app shows all stored files.
Activity log — the Activity app shows file and sharing events.
Sharing history — the Sharing section in Personal Settings.
Connected clients and app passwords — Personal Settings → Security.

As an administrator you can retrieve a summary of an account's metadata using:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ user:info <uid>

This outputs display name, email, last login, quota, groups, and backend.

Right to erasure (Article 17)

To permanently delete a user account and all associated data:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ user:delete <uid>

This removes the account, all files owned by the user, their profile data, authentication tokens, and groupware data (contacts, calendars).

Warning

Comments must be deleted manually before running user:delete. File comments and Talk messages are stored in oc_comments and oc_comments_read_markers. These are not removed by user:delete and will be left attributed to "unknown/anonymous user" if not cleaned up first. Run these SQL queries before deleting the account:

DELETE FROM oc_comments
  WHERE actor_type = 'users' AND actor_id = '$USERID';

DELETE FROM oc_comments_read_markers
  WHERE user_id = '$USERID';

Replace $USERID with the account's username. To find all comment types on your instance (file comments, Talk, etc.) run:

SELECT DISTINCT object_type FROM oc_comments;

Before deleting the account you may want to transfer file ownership to another user so that shared files remain available:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ files:transfer-ownership <uid> <destination-uid>

Right to data portability (Article 20)

Users can export their own data directly from Nextcloud:

Files — downloadable as a ZIP from the Files app, or accessible in full via WebDAV at https://<your-server>/remote.php/dav/files/<uid>/.
Contacts — exportable as a .vcf file from the Contacts app (select all → Export).
Calendar — exportable as an .ics file from the Calendar app (Calendar settings → Export).
Personal data export — users can request a full data export in Personal Settings → Personal Info → scroll to the bottom → Download your data. This produces a ZIP archive containing files, contacts, and calendar data.

As an administrator you can export a user's calendar from the command line:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:export-calendar <uid> <calendar-name> <output-file>

Right to rectification (Article 16)

Users can correct their own profile data in Personal Settings → Personal Info. Administrators can update display name, email, and other profile fields using:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ user:setting <uid> settings email <new-email>
sudo -E -u www-data php occ user:setting <uid> settings displayname <new-name>

For fields stored in a connected LDAP or SAML directory, corrections must be made in the upstream directory rather than in Nextcloud.

Right to restriction of processing (Article 18)

To suspend processing without deleting an account, disable it:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ user:disable <uid>

A disabled account cannot log in and no background jobs run for it. The account and all its data remain intact and can be re-enabled at any time:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ user:enable <uid>