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Instapaper is temporarily shutting off access for European users due to GDPR

theverge.com

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Re: Instapaper is temporarily shutting off access for European users due to GDPR

#41

Post by iovrthoughtthis »

sebazzz wrote: post #17
Fradow wrote: post #9

Obviously, IANAL, but my company talked to a few over the past week. This move is, in my opinion, a bad read on the odds and European culture. First, culture. The goal (at least in France, but that's probably the same in other countries) is to get you in compliance, NOT to fine you. What this means is that before you get lawsuit and fines, someone will talk to you and work with you to see how you can get compliant. S…

As far as I understand the grace period was the last two years. Tomorrow is the big day. But whether or not that it is true, I believe that if Europeans have used Instapaper and they now temporarily shut off access they still are not compliant and in violation of the law. Because they did serve Europeans, so they have their data.

Exactly this.

Re: Instapaper is temporarily shutting off access for European users due to GDPR

#43

Post by bthdonohue »

Angostura wrote: post #23
bthdonohue wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The email we sent to EU users (quoted in linked article) has the important details regarding the service interruption in the EU. Additionally, I can say that our privacy policy is concise, clear, and accurate with respect to the types of information we collect and how the data is used: https://www.instapaper.com/privacy If you have other specific questions, I will do my best to answer them.

Well, as The Verge says in the article: 'While we don’t know exactly what’s holding up Instapaper' I'm naturally curious as to what's holding up Instapaper. As you say, your Privacy Policy is very good, other than the disclaimer that says 'we may pass your personal data to others - who knows what they do with it eh?'. I imagine that this is the issue which is holding you up.

The scope of work for GDPR was underestimated by me, we were not able to complete that work for the deadline on Friday, and this was the required alternative.

We are working very hard to minimize the service interruption.

Re: Instapaper is temporarily shutting off access for European users due to GDPR

#44

Post by wastedhours »

sebazzz wrote: post #17
Fradow wrote: post #9

Obviously, IANAL, but my company talked to a few over the past week. This move is, in my opinion, a bad read on the odds and European culture. First, culture. The goal (at least in France, but that's probably the same in other countries) is to get you in compliance, NOT to fine you. What this means is that before you get lawsuit and fines, someone will talk to you and work with you to see how you can get compliant. S…

As far as I understand the grace period was the last two years. Tomorrow is the big day. But whether or not that it is true, I believe that if Europeans have used Instapaper and they now temporarily shut off access they still are not compliant and in violation of the law. Because they did serve Europeans, so they have their data.

To further that point, this is a quote [0] from the UK's ICO on that:

> It’s an evolutionary process for organisations – 25 May is the date the legislation takes effect but no business stands still. You will be expected to continue to identify and address emerging privacy and security risks in the weeks, months and years beyond May 2018.

> That said, there will be no ‘grace’ period – there has been two years to prepare and we will be regulating from this date.

> But we pride ourselves on being a fair and proportionate regulator and this will continue under the GDPR, as I set out in my first myth busting blog. Those who self-report, who engage with us to resolve issues and who can demonstrate effective accountability arrangements can expect this to be taken into account when we consider any regulatory action.

[0] https://iconewsblog.org.uk/2017/12/22/gdpr-is-not-y2k/

Re: Instapaper is temporarily shutting off access for European users due to GDPR

#45

Post by wastedhours »

Fradow wrote: post #22
TomK32 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikipedia disagrees on the enforcement start and claims that is tomorrow. But I agree with you, the way most interpret the regulation and its sanction is not how Europeans do laws. The "administrative fines up to ..." as you can read in the text http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELE... Those high fines are meant for large ill-meaning companies, but the small 2-ppl-SaaS that doesn't report or ac…

Actual quote of the GDPR: (171) Directive 95/46/EC should be repealed by this Regulation. Processing already under way on the date of application of this Regulation should be brought into conformity with this Regulation within the period of two years after which this Regulation enters into force. [...] I can't say for sure what's the scope, but I stand by my point that PART of it have a delay to get into conformity.

As mentioned, GDPR has been in force for 2 years - Friday is the end of the grace period. But, as I referenced in another comment, it doesn't just "end" tomorrow, the expectation is that you have a plan in place to address future privacy issues and that you're acting in good faith.

If you're not compliant, but aren't deliberately not compliant, and are active in trying to address that, and report anything you might be breaching, then they're not going to go after you like hounds (in the UK at least).

The ICO seems to be a fair and reasonable body, they just now have some extra teeth.

Re: Instapaper is temporarily shutting off access for European users due to GDPR

#46

Post by BlackFly »

mstolpm wrote: post #31

Asked a lawyer: If Instapaper doesn't delete the data from its EU users tomorrow, all the rules of the GDPR might still fall on their head. Most likely, they are then storing EU user data without given consent and have to follow all the requests about data storage, use, deletion and so on. Denying service without data deletion is not an option.

Indeed, it is not service to EU users which is governed by GDPR, it is data processing of data subjects in the EU. Obviously the data processing as defined by the GDPR doesn't stop simply because the service stops since storage is considered processing.

Seems to me Instapaper painted a big target on their chest: "We're not compliant, and we're going to give EU users the middle finger in the meanwhile." Whereas, their size and business model may have staved off the data protection authorities attention, now a bunch of angry users may well be issuing complaints.

Re: Instapaper is temporarily shutting off access for European users due to GDPR

#47

Post by BlackFly »

dejv wrote: post #35
mstolpm wrote: post #31

Asked a lawyer: If Instapaper doesn't delete the data from its EU users tomorrow, all the rules of the GDPR might still fall on their head. Most likely, they are then storing EU user data without given consent and have to follow all the requests about data storage, use, deletion and so on. Denying service without data deletion is not an option.

Also: how they are going to decide who is EU user. GDPR apply to all EU citizens living abroad.

GDPR applies to data processors in the EU or for data subjects in the EU. Citizenship is irrelevant.

Re: Instapaper is temporarily shutting off access for European users due to GDPR

#48

Post by chewz »

bthdonohue wrote: post #36
chewz wrote: post #26

My impression is that Instapaper team is terribly understaffed and probably lost control over it's code base. They had changed hands twice over the years (Betaworks (Digg) 2013 and Pinterest 2016) with practically zero changes in code or the app. Zero progress, zero updates. That says something. And the instapaper.com when downloading is sharing data with third parties like there is no tomorrow. Simply it is download…

Hey – Brian from Instapaper here. I've been at Instapaper since the betaworks acquisition in 2013, so I have a lot of context here. We've made tons of progress since I joined, redesigning the apps, websites, launching highlights, rebooting our business model, text-to-speech, speed reading, re-writing our parser, re-building our full-text search engine. The list goes on. We currently don't have an image proxy for Inst…

Of course, that was just my impression and not really an accusation based on facts. I apologize if I got it wrong.

I actually liked it that way, that Instapaper stays the same and reliable while other feels the urge to 'innovate' giving it's loyal users only trouble. Scripts that I have written years ago for uploading articles still work and Instapaper is still my Read-It-Later of choice.

As for images - I had to accept that Instapaper works that way - but always had been little annoyed that it is possible to turn off images but that's not persistent option.

Re: Instapaper is temporarily shutting off access for European users due to GDPR

#49

Post by wastedhours »

mstolpm wrote: post #31

Asked a lawyer: If Instapaper doesn't delete the data from its EU users tomorrow, all the rules of the GDPR might still fall on their head. Most likely, they are then storing EU user data without given consent and have to follow all the requests about data storage, use, deletion and so on. Denying service without data deletion is not an option.

They probably won't be using consent as their legal basis for most of their work, but all of the rest of it will still be on their heads by the sounds of it.

Re: Instapaper is temporarily shutting off access for European users due to GDPR

#50

Post by mercer »

bthdonohue wrote: post #36
chewz wrote: post #26

My impression is that Instapaper team is terribly understaffed and probably lost control over it's code base. They had changed hands twice over the years (Betaworks (Digg) 2013 and Pinterest 2016) with practically zero changes in code or the app. Zero progress, zero updates. That says something. And the instapaper.com when downloading is sharing data with third parties like there is no tomorrow. Simply it is download…

Hey – Brian from Instapaper here. I've been at Instapaper since the betaworks acquisition in 2013, so I have a lot of context here. We've made tons of progress since I joined, redesigning the apps, websites, launching highlights, rebooting our business model, text-to-speech, speed reading, re-writing our parser, re-building our full-text search engine. The list goes on. We currently don't have an image proxy for Inst…

Hi Brian! I was worried when Instapaper was acquired, but so far it's been working fine for the most part. I did get the impression that the whole thing became a lot slower. Is that possible, or is it just my end of things (connecting from NL)?

That said, speed isn't all that important considering that I do most of my reading on my iOS devices and they have that stuff locally. Still!

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