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Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is

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Re: Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is

#241

Post by vilmosi »

dbg31415 wrote: post #216
mi100hael wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Having insight into website traffic is hugely valuable to webmasters.

They shouldn't have to feed information to Google -- they just need to look at the logs on their servers. Y'know... the way we did it before Google Analytics came along.

There's an entire industry around parsing logs though. Even "big data" companies outsource their log parsing.

Requiring every website to create graphs and stats from log files is not practical, especially with websites that don't have a constant developer on it. Think blogs, recipe websites, restaurants. Google Analytics provides an insanely good value for them and it's a good thing.

It's not like pre Google Analytics we had a golden age of website stats.

Re: Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is

#242

Post by smokeyj »

Grollicus wrote: post #191
gingerlime wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If all information you have about a person is their email (and usage data) then this won’t make a difference though... The GDPR considers even an IP address personal data, even if you have no way to correlate it with a real person. So where does this leave you if you have to respond? Imagine I’m sending a request for information from a given IP address, requesting all the personal information you hold on that IP. I k…

An IP address is only personal data in combination with a timestamp or similar time-related information. I don't see an attack scenario where an attacker would gain anything useful. Note that he's propably still risking jail time over this.

> Note that he's propably still risking jail time over this.

I feel like most criminals are OK with that.

Re: Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is

#243

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

gonmf wrote: post #77

"If you look at what is happening around us, you can see very clear signals that the public has had enough." No, outside of a few echo chambers, no one cares about privacy or knows what GDPR is. Until GDPR shows everyday on the evening news for weeks it will not be well-known, and there are many things more important to most people than online privacy. Heck, Cambridge Analytica was only a scandal because the "bad guy…

While concern about privacy may indeed remain a niche thing, GDPR is intruding into the European public consciousness. In recent weeks I have received a number of e-mails from hotels I once stayed in, associations I am a member of, my old university, etc. to alert me to the fact that they have my personal data and under the GDPR I have rights regarding it.

Re: Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is

#244

Post by hanoz »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #14

GDPR articles seem to be getting some traction on HN as everyone is trying to figure out: "Do I need to do something for this? Is so, what?" For a recent project I read (and translated to plain english) [1] every single article in the GDPR legislation and for our purposes it can be summed up as: "Treat user data like names and emails as if they were credit card numbers" AKA: be paranoid about keeping them, encrypt th…

> "Treat user data like names and emails as if they were credit card numbers"

Most sites' approach to credit card numbers is to not touch them with a barge pole, have a third party receive them instead and never let the business have any sight of them, so it's a bit of a stretch to expect the same treatment for a customer's name and email address.

Re: Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is

#245

Post by germanier »

sumeno wrote: post #220
Xylakant wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

German public media is not state sponsored. It’s an independent entity which is paid for by public fees (not taxes, the money never goes through the governments coffers). There are some levers that could be used to exert some level of control, for example the height of the fee is set by a commission that is partly under government control and many ex-politicians get elected into high positions, but all in all, public…

What protections are in place to prevent an internal takeover of the organization by a political party? Let's say the Roger Ailes of Germany finds his way to the top of German public media and uses that position to tilt coverage to be more favorable to his own party, what happens? If all your eggs are in one basket what happens when something goes wrong with that basket?

We have 12 public broadcasters that are independent of each other each with their own board (and on top working under the laws of different states ensuring that no one political institution has power over all them, the federal government is strictly barred of interfering by the constitution). 10 of those cooperate closely, share some resources, and produce a common TV station in addition to their own radio and TV stations. One is a radio broadcaster using resources of the others. The last one is a TV broadcaster that works separately. It's pretty inefficient but ensures that there is no single entity controlling everything.

Re: Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is

#246

Post by Rjevski »

My takeaway from the whole GDPR craze is that if you respect your users and have some ethics as to how you process their data then you don't have much to worry about to begin with.

If you are an asshole that's trying to get as much data off your users in order to resell them to the highest bidder, share it with "partners" (partners in crime that is), or to advertise/spam them with shit they don't need, then frankly you (or your industry) asked for this themselves.

The only downside I see to GDPR is that we've now opened the gates for a new breed of "GDPR consultant" that's gonna charge hundreds an hour just to rehash what the law says in a slightly different way and defraud businesses that way by pretending to be a valuable service (and no doubt there will be clueless execs that'll actually believe it and pay for that).

Re: Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is

#247

Post by germanier »

briandear wrote: post #233
Xylakant wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

German public media is not state sponsored. It’s an independent entity which is paid for by public fees (not taxes, the money never goes through the governments coffers). There are some levers that could be used to exert some level of control, for example the height of the fee is set by a commission that is partly under government control and many ex-politicians get elected into high positions, but all in all, public…

What is the difference between a tax and a mandatory fee? If government requires me to pay a fee, it’s a tax.

While there is a law (to be precise: one in each state) mandating to pay this fee it is levied by the broadcasters themselves and the money is at no point touching accounts controlled by the government.

(As a sidenote because it's confusing for people from both sides: In Germany we differentiate between taxes which end up in the general budget and can be used for everything and fees which are purpose-bound from the moment of collection, e.g. in this case the levied money must be used for broadcasting. This differentiation is not common elsewhere.)

Re: Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is

#248

Post by ryandrake »

kasey_junk wrote: post #223
ryandrake wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about, “Our documented policy is to not collect personal information from users at all.” Assuming it’s true, wouldn’t that be compliant?

GDPR also expands what is personal data to include things that are collected as a matter of course such as IP address. You likely have a reason to log that data but GDPR requires that you document it. Further it reaches into your business even if you aren’t trying to do business in the EU, as EU citizens can come to your site without your control. There is a lot to like with GDPR but it absolutely is expansive & easy…

Maybe these things shouldn’t be collected as a matter of course. Should web servers log client IP addresses by default? Why? Does my mail server need to log email addresses of incoming mail by default? “Logging all the things” as default behavior really needs to be a thing of the past.

If anyone wants to get their feet wet in open source, there are thousands of high profile projects out there that could use a patch to scrub PII from their logging, and these are probably simple diffs.

Re: Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is

#249

Post by gambiting »

feedmeseymour wrote: post #15
mlinksva wrote: post #3

> Today, for instance, we see that a majority of people who install an ad blocker don't actually do it to block ads (that's just an added bonus). They are actually doing it to block tracking. Is there any evidence for this at all?

Every person I know that uses an ad blocker (5, including myself) does it to prevent tracking. In fact, I want to white list certain websites (a dozen or so) to continue seeing ads, but I don’t want to because I know that they are likely using Google for their ads and I don’t want Google’s little grabbling hands tracking me.

I work in IT and I don't know anyone(myself included) who uses ad blockers to block tracking. It's just about the annoying ads for me.

Re: Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is

#250

Post by jpttsn »

Rjevski wrote: post #246

My takeaway from the whole GDPR craze is that if you respect your users and have some ethics as to how you process their data then you don't have much to worry about to begin with. If you are an asshole that's trying to get as much data off your users in order to resell them to the highest bidder, share it with "partners" (partners in crime that is), or to advertise/spam them with shit they don't need, then frankly y…

You seem to predict the law will have exactly the intended effects. That amounts to a very high regard for the lawmakers.

Remembering laws that haven’t worked as intended, and failing to recall anything particular about these lawmakers, I find your stance optimistic.

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