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But:
Our long-term payment provider Nexi has terminated our contract without prior notice. As a result, recurring credit card and direct debit donations from our supporters have been paused. This impacts over 450 FSFE supporters, who we have already informed by email.
If you are donating by direct debit, or if you set up a recurring donation by credit card before November 18, 2025, you will be affected. If in those cases, you have not received an email from us, please contact us so you can continue to support us for software freedom.
Over the past few months, our former payment provider Nexi S.p.A. (“Nexi”) requested access to personal data that we believed to be personal data, in particular the usernames and passwords of our supporters. We have declined this request. All our attempts to clarify Nexi’s request, or to understand how their need for such information was necessary and legal, were met with vague and unsatisfactory explanations related to the general need for risk analysis.
Subsequently, we found ourselves unable to receive credit card donations through Nexi’s system. In the afternoon of March 10, we were further informed that our contract had been canceled a few days earlier, on March 7, because we had failed to meet the deadline to complete their request. Despite being a customer of Nexi for the last 15 years, we were not informed about this deadline in advance.
Over 450 current FSFE supporters who use automatic renewal with credit cards or direct debits have been affected by Nexi’s actions. Although we have already prepared for the transition to a new payment provider, existing supporter accounts cannot be automatically migrated.
From past experience, we know that there are always some people who don’t read our email. If we lose their financial support due to this unexpected disruption, it will impact our work for free software.
The decisions taken by Nexi are beyond our understanding. Over the past months, as part of the security audit carried out by Nexi, we have provided them with a large amount of FSFE financial documents, including personal information of our executive staff. We have answered all their questions. But when private companies like Nexi demand access to our supporters’ sensitive and personal data, we have to draw a line.
On our website, all donation pages have already been updated and include our new payment provider. Especially in this difficult situation, we greatly appreciate your support for software freedom.
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