Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 680 posts

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

#251

Post by ajmurmann »

dmitriid wrote: post #186
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because bitter HN users will call you shady if you don’t fully comply with their pet law, no matter how ambiguous or onerous :)

This "pet law" is the law of 500 million people, has been in effect for two years (two years was a grace period to comply with it), and exists exactly because shady businesses didn't even comply with existing data protection laws. It's not "bitter HN users". It's bitter European citizens. No wonder that it's mostly American companies who have the most trouble complying with it.

It's not necessarily that American companies are having trouble complying. Some of them like the ones the article is about just have little incentive to do so. If I'm in essence doing no business in Europe it's more efficient to just block European visitors.

Having grown up in Europe I'm much more sensitive to privacy concerns than most Americans, but it's not proper to assume that anyone who just blocks European visitors is up to something nefarious. It just doesn't make business sense for everyone to comply.

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

#252

Post by adventured »

TorKlingberg wrote: post #108

I am worried regulations will make the Internet more geographically fragmented. The best thing about the Internet is how it captures the long tail. A random person in Slovenia can read a local news site in Kansas if they wish. Even if spending just one minute of effort making itself available in Slovenia would be a loss for said news site. The Internet is by default global and everything is available to everyone. It…

There's no scenario where the 'open' Internet doesn't rip apart.

Globally there will be dozens of GDPR type regulations, and that's just covering privacy. There will be a lot more for economic rules, cultural rules (eg governing speech), etc.

Want to operate a service in 100+ countries? You'll have to comply with thousands of rules. Only giant companies will be able to do it. It's already extremely difficult to do. In the physical goods world, generally only very large companies can operate in 100+ countries; that's exactly how it will be for Internet companies in the near future.

In the case of the US, there will be an immense advantage for tech services & sites. I can make a lot of money on ads just in the single large US market, far more than necessary to support a global operation. I can then project out into the rest of the world, without concern for complying with everyone's individual rules (unless it makes economic sense). For those localities to stop me, they all have to implement draconian Chinese-style repression of their people and what they can see online (which most will not do).

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

#253

Post by drivingmenuts »

oblio wrote: post #153
kodablah wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However, I hope they will rectify and allow access again for EU users at some point soon. Honestly, I don't. I don't want this precedent of government overreach to stand. I wish more international companies would stop doing business with US citizens for the same reasons. > It seems to go against the idea of a borderless internet, and I blame the companies for that, not the EU. You don't blame border-based rules for…

> Honestly, I don't. I don't want this precedent of government overreach to stand. Why is it overreach? It's literally why we invented government! I, the little guy, couldn't find giants like Facebook or Google. That's why I asked my democratically elected government to work on the problem.

> Why is it overreach?

Because the EU is targeting companies beyond it's own borders, including companies that have no representation in the EU. Google, Apple, Facebook, etc. have the means to affect policy worldwide, making them international. Smaller companies do not.

Ma and Pa's Midwest Quilting Shop is really going to hate it, when they eventually get around to disovering they've got a problem. It sucks for a lot of people who depend on advertising, but imagine how bad it's going to be for niche sellers (quilting supplies, Americana dealers, woodworking tool sellers, etc.) It's an opportunity for someone over here to make a pile of cash, but there's no way it's not going to suck for the little guys.

Nine times out of ten it probably doesn't matter. What happens in France happens in France and that's not really our problem to worry about. This is that tenth time.

I suspect there's more than a few Europeans having a big, fat cup of haterade-flavored schadenfreude with their afternoon tea who wanted exactly this to happen.

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

#254

Post by rad_gruchalski »

reaperducer wrote: post #197
tzfld wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It works both ways.

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

#255

Post by throwaway-hn123 »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #238
dmitriid wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pass whatever law you want, just don’t expect me to care. That was exactly the position of too many companies: pass whatever law, I don't care. Well. It has gone on for too long, so, hopefully, now companies will start to care. > If you don’t want to do business with me because I’m not compliant, don’t send me server requests, data, or money. The EU is 500 million people. It looks to me that it's you who doesn't wa…

I treat all my users fairly and protect their data, and I am not intentionally targeting any EU users with anything I do online.

Get back to growth hacking, you dumb cunt.

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

#256

Post by qwerftgzh »

fixermark wrote: post #195
kazagistar wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

i.e "It's easier for car manufacturers to build cars if your remove regulations on safety or pollution"

i.e "It's easier for employers to produce cheaper products by exploiting their employees if your protection of labour is on the level it was 1850"

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

#257

Post by voidr »

rdlecler1 wrote: post #206
voidr wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the result will probably be that a lot of free websites ban EU users Good riddance, at least we know what websites we shouldn't have visited in the first place. > smaller companies take their place with products that either cost money or will be a bit worse. Or they will be better and still be free. News companies are dying, news is commodity, if I can't read something on the LA times, I'm sure I'll find that same…

You assume that just because someone doesn’t want to got through all the hassle of being GDPR compliant that the website is somehow bad? Among other things this includes setting up an EU represeneitive—a high bar for a free product..... Obviously you haven’t had to deal with GDPR compliance.

> You assume that just because someone doesn’t want to got through all the hassle of being GDPR compliant that the website is somehow bad?

If they are not collecting any personal data, there is no hassle. Do you think it's somehow bad for a car manufacturer to not want to go through the hassle of making their cars conform to the safety standards?

> Among other things this includes setting up an EU represeneitive

Citation needed.

> a high bar for a free product

The product is not really free because users pay for it with their data, which was unclear before.

> Obviously you haven’t had to deal with GDPR compliance.

Obviously from what? Are you a GDPR compliance expert?

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

#258

Post by DanBC »

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…

It's very good.

Some of the links appear broken. For example, all the "More" links here haven't been hyperlinked: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/05/25/rac...

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

#259

Post by rdlecler1 »

tommorris wrote: post #230
rdlecler1 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regulations tend to favor incumbents, decreasing competition, and thereby increase monopoly and creating central hubs of systemic risk. There is no free lunch with one-size-fits-all rule making. Unfortunately regulators think there is.

I was thinking about getting in to the car market but all these pesky requirements that I sell a car with airbags and seatbelts and fuel efficiency compliance are just there to protect existing incumbents.

False equivalency.

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

#260

Post by gohbgl »

tommorris wrote: post #230
rdlecler1 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regulations tend to favor incumbents, decreasing competition, and thereby increase monopoly and creating central hubs of systemic risk. There is no free lunch with one-size-fits-all rule making. Unfortunately regulators think there is.

I was thinking about getting in to the car market but all these pesky requirements that I sell a car with airbags and seatbelts and fuel efficiency compliance are just there to protect existing incumbents.

Airbags and seat belts were installed in cars long before they were required by regulators. The same goes for improvements in fuel efficiency. This all is driven by competing companies trying to make a profit.
Post reply on HN