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GDPR: US news sites unavailable to EU users over data protection rules

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Re: GDPR: US news sites unavailable to EU users over data protection rules

#191

Post by fixermark »

alkonaut wrote: post #155
tzfld wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how can be a business sustainable in this way?

Hopefully what will happen is that it will be more expensive to advertise and publishers will earn more on dumber ads Obviously if ads are less targeted then they may be less effective so advertisers will make less on ads that cost more. This will hurt their bottom line, which in turn will make the products we buy more expensive. But that's exactly the end goal. I want to pay for things (information, products) with m…

That's a sad outcome.

I remember the tedium of non-targeted advertising---it's what ultimately pushed me away from most traditional print and broadcast media and online. Targeted advertising occasionally brings me information I actually want; non-targeted advertising feels like such a waste of everybody's time.

I hope someone takes on the experiment of opt-in GDPR compliant ads.

Re: GDPR: US news sites unavailable to EU users over data protection rules

#192

Post by riantogo »

rdlecler1 wrote: post #171

GDPR is significant because for the first time in this history of the Internet an (EU) user no longer has a marginal cost of zero. The cost to write an application to be GDPR compliant is high and frankly will not be worth it for many entepreurs developing an MVP.

Last night I fired up my laptop to go shut down my side project. But I came up with a band-aid solution that might hold up for now: https://medium.com/@riantogo/gdpr-band-aid-b619d0b17e5b

I don’t need email addresses any more than, say, Pinterest. But now it is one more barrier to entry for side projects. It is definitely not easy to be compliant as many here suggest.

Re: GDPR: US news sites unavailable to EU users over data protection rules

#193

Post by rdlecler1 »

fastball wrote: post #179
rdlecler1 wrote: post #171

GDPR is significant because for the first time in this history of the Internet an (EU) user no longer has a marginal cost of zero. The cost to write an application to be GDPR compliant is high and frankly will not be worth it for many entepreurs developing an MVP.

That's not true at all. It's really easy to build an MVP that complies with GDPR.

Really? Do you have an EU representative for your MVP? Did you hire a legal team to review your site and write up your terms of service? Send me your MVP and I’ll show you 10 thing a that are wrong with it and if you are complaint somehow then I doubt the product will be viable at all.

Re: GDPR: US news sites unavailable to EU users over data protection rules

#194

Post by Symmetry »

fastball wrote: post #179
rdlecler1 wrote: post #171

GDPR is significant because for the first time in this history of the Internet an (EU) user no longer has a marginal cost of zero. The cost to write an application to be GDPR compliant is high and frankly will not be worth it for many entepreurs developing an MVP.

That's not true at all. It's really easy to build an MVP that complies with GDPR.

Regardless of whether the app has a cost in and of itself, the process of appointing a compliance officer and making sure that they understand their responsibilities under EU law is a necessary cost unless you happen to be developing the app yourself and already understand everything involved.

Re: GDPR: US news sites unavailable to EU users over data protection rules

#195

Post by fixermark »

kazagistar wrote: post #121
paganel wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have tried lots of other stuff in the last 10-15 years, it was not sustainable (micro-transactions never took off, subscription-based newspapers are the exception rather than the norm etc). I'm personally fine with newspapers like the LA Times collecting and selling my personal data as long as I can read articles for "free" on their website, I think it's a pretty fair deal.

Part of the reason for the failure of those other models is their need to compete with an exploitative ad driven model. When you remove the lowest common denominator, you make it is easier for the market to accomplish something better.

i.e. "It's easier for horses to compete with cars if you set the speed limit everywhere to 5 miles per hour."

Re: GDPR: US news sites unavailable to EU users over data protection rules

#196

Post by tormeh »

elorant wrote: post #117
tzfld wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how can be a business sustainable in this way?

By hosting non-tracking ads. Like they used to be before Google started this whole profiling menace.

They can even be dynamic. Filter on location, uplink/computer speed, screen size, browser etc. None of it requires storing data.

Adtech might move to correlating all these things + the website visited to target particular demographics.

Re: GDPR: US news sites unavailable to EU users over data protection rules

#197

Post by reaperducer »

tzfld wrote: post #53
flohofwoe wrote: post #48

Alternatively there's this: https://eu.usatoday.com/ No ads, no tracking, no cookies, not even Javascript. Just plain HTML+CSS and JPEG images. The whole front page is around 650 KByte, and by far most of this is in the image files. As a result the page looks very clean and loads very fast. This is what all news web sites should look like, not just for EU readers (although I fear that this is just a temporary solutio…

And how can be a business sustainable in this way?

> And how can be a business sustainable in this way?

There are millions of businesses around the world that don't give a fig about European customers or the E.U. Hurts to hear it, but it's true.

They manage to survive an thrive without any interaction with anyone in the E.E.A.

It's a very European thing to think of the E.U. as the indispensable center of the world.

Re: GDPR: US news sites unavailable to EU users over data protection rules

#198

Post by jenscow »

ghaff wrote: post #31
imdutch wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still run a free website and be compliant with the GDPR. The EU/EEA is the largest market in the world, closing yourself for an market that size will hurt more than changing a few thing to be compliant.

>closing yourself for an market that size will hurt more than changing a few thing to be compliant Only if I make significant money from that market. If most of my revenue/profit comes from the US and it's problematic to "do business" in the EU or China, why wouldn't I want to just cut access off rather than dealing with potential hassles? The fact that it's potentially a large market is irrelevant to me. In this cas…

> But I've sent a clear message that I'm not marketing to European consumers.

More like, sent a clear message you're not concerned of your user's data.

(Nothing personal, the signal may not necessarily echo the reality)

Re: GDPR: US news sites unavailable to EU users over data protection rules

#199

Post by rdlecler1 »

imdutch wrote: post #19
firic wrote: post #10

Things like this will test how much EU citizens value their privacy. Of course there will be some sites they will not be able to visit but time will show if they are okay with that. These rules are very similar to rules limiting loans. No matter how desperate a person is and how low credit they have, in the US you can't give them a loan for above a certain amount of interest. That could be terrible for a poor person…

You can still run a free website and be compliant with the GDPR. The EU/EEA is the largest market in the world, closing yourself for an market that size will hurt more than changing a few thing to be compliant.

False. The marginal cost of an EU customer is no longer zero. Why should I put in a bunch of work for GDPR compliance if the cost to implement it exceeds the initial marginal cost of an EU user. There is still the rest of the world.

Re: GDPR: US news sites unavailable to EU users over data protection rules

#200

Post by mg794613 »

icebraining wrote: post #46
simion314 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a site that shows text and images you have a simple solution change the code if(isUserInEU()) showBlobkingPopup();) else loadAllTrackingScripts(); into if(isUserInEU()) loadNonTrackingScripts(); else loadAllTrackingScripts();

The problem is ads. Many networks track their users, and the site is responsible for that too. Eliminating all ads means the EU users become only a cost. They need to integrate GDPR-compliant ad networks to serve to EU users, and they probably didn't do the work.

Ads!= tracking Also Ads!= only viable source of income.
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