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GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloudflare Workers

apility.io

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Re: GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloudflare Workers

#61

Post by outside1234 »

orf wrote: post #54
outside1234 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, if you are running a business where 99% of your customers are outside of the EU, its totally rational versus opening yourself up to massive liability.

You need to purge that 1% customer data though. If you're accepting EU citizens data through any channel - another business, them using a VPN, via smoke signals, you need to comply.

If it is while the customer is in the EU.

If the customer joins your Japanese site while in Japan, its governed under Japanese law, not EU law. Your citizenship is irrelevant.

Re: GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloudflare Workers

#62

Post by merinowool »

oh_sigh wrote: post #24
merinowool wrote: post #6

How this checks if a user is European when using US VPN or being on holidays outside EU?

You misunderstand the GDPR if you think you carry its protection around when you visit non-European locales.

That is not true I am afraid.

Re: GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloudflare Workers

#63

Post by foobarbazetc »

ThJ wrote: post #53

I keep seeing these posts on how to block European users to avoid the GDPR. As a citizen of Europe, seeing these posts consistently making it to the front page is disappointing. It would seem that Silicon Valley perceives the GDPR as more of a hindrance than an opportunity to offer users better privacy. Nothing has been learned.

It’s disappointing, sure... but is it surprising?

To a lot of US-ians the GDPR is just some EU bureaucrat stopping them from making more $. Nothing matters apart from being able to do whatever you want and make $.

It’s just a different mindset.

Re: GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloudflare Workers

#64

Post by JBReefer »

outside1234 wrote: post #51
nrdgrl wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GDPR applies to all EU citizens. It doesn't matter if the citizen is accessing the web site from the eu or another country. Blocking people in the EU doesn't block all eu citizens from accessing your product/service.

People keep saying this but its not true. The EU has no jurisdiction outside of the EU. If both the user and site are outside of the EU at the time of the transaction, they can not make claims, regardless of citizenship.

No, it is true, If you don't the EU Army will come and get you. /s

It's a basic idea, and HN prides itself on being smart, but there aren't global laws. No one gets to enforce civil penalties outside of their jurisdictions, without exceptional circumstances. If they fine you and you don't have offices there just ... don't pay? The EU might not exist in 10 years anyway.

Re: GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloudflare Workers

#65

Post by dogecoinbase »

ThJ wrote: post #53

I keep seeing these posts on how to block European users to avoid the GDPR. As a citizen of Europe, seeing these posts consistently making it to the front page is disappointing. It would seem that Silicon Valley perceives the GDPR as more of a hindrance than an opportunity to offer users better privacy. Nothing has been learned.

If there's a successful business that blocks EU access due to GDPR, that's a huge immediate opportunity to enter that market in the EU (unless, of course, the business model is based on resale of personal information).

Re: GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloudflare Workers

#66

Post by jsnell »

nrdgrl wrote: post #34
sp332 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're the third person to ask this and I'd like to ask you: is this idea coming from a specific source? The law, like any other EU law, obviously does not apply outside the EU. It applies to companies that do business in the EU (even if they are based outside), but it can't apply to companies that don't do business there. https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/refo...

GDPR applies to all EU citizens. It doesn't matter if the citizen is accessing the web site from the eu or another country. Blocking people in the EU doesn't block all eu citizens from accessing your product/service.

That's just not how it works.

Recital 23 (referring to Article 3, Territorial Scope)

> In order to determine whether such a controller or processor is offering goods or services to data subjects who are in the Union, it should be ascertained whether it is apparent that the controller or processor envisages offering services to data subjects in one or more Member States in the Union.

An attempt to prevent EU users from accessing the site at all is about as strong a signal as it gets regarding this. When you're blocking all of Europe by IP, it's pretty fucking obvious you're not envisaging offering services there.

Re: GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloudflare Workers

#67

Post by ythn »

mephitix wrote: post #49
matte_black wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's no laughing matter for some companies. EU citizens have turned into pests overnight. There are businesses who don't make much money from the EU to justify compliance with the regulations.

>> EU citizens have turned into pests overnight. Are they really pests for demanding privacy? In today's environment?

To me it seems like a case of wanting to have the cake and eat it too.

"I want to use your free service without participating in your monetization model. K thanks" -- EU citizens

Re: GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloudflare Workers

#68

Post by CodeWriter23 »

ThJ wrote: post #53

I keep seeing these posts on how to block European users to avoid the GDPR. As a citizen of Europe, seeing these posts consistently making it to the front page is disappointing. It would seem that Silicon Valley perceives the GDPR as more of a hindrance than an opportunity to offer users better privacy. Nothing has been learned.

Consider this case, startup app in a niche market, only available on US app stores, and a one man dev team that needs to focus on app dev not compliance for some regulation that could never apply to their customers. Yet needs to be sure they don’t end up giving the company to the EU because someone over there signs up on a marketing list.

That’s the startup I’m presently working on. We’ll expand beyond the US borders (and implement GDPR) when we advance to a larger revenue stream. But right now, GDPR compliance is a distraction that interferes with gaining enough traction to help us afford the engineering and legal resources to ensure such compliance.

NOTE: we delete all client data when they cancel already. And we don’t do any creepy marketing.

Re: GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloudflare Workers

#69

Post by drspacemonkey »

ThJ wrote: post #53

I keep seeing these posts on how to block European users to avoid the GDPR. As a citizen of Europe, seeing these posts consistently making it to the front page is disappointing. It would seem that Silicon Valley perceives the GDPR as more of a hindrance than an opportunity to offer users better privacy. Nothing has been learned.

>Nothing has been learned

In my limited view, this is pretty much the case. When I was telling our management team about the GDPR and how it relates to our new European-focused project, the first thing the CEO said was "how do we get around this?"

Management decided we're not gonna comply with the GDPR and just hope nobody notices.

Re: GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloudflare Workers

#70

Post by newman8r »

ThJ wrote: post #53

I keep seeing these posts on how to block European users to avoid the GDPR. As a citizen of Europe, seeing these posts consistently making it to the front page is disappointing. It would seem that Silicon Valley perceives the GDPR as more of a hindrance than an opportunity to offer users better privacy. Nothing has been learned.

I can see why you'd be disappointed - if popular websites started blocking US customers I'd be pretty bummed out as well (even if it was easy to circumvent).

As a dev though, I also understand the frustration. Creating startups is already time-intensive and stressful. A lot of us are on shoestring budgets. Most startups will fail. To a solo developer in the US, the idea of spending time understanding and complying with GDPR is daunting, it's more than just a hindrance to many. Still, I don't want to break European law, so maybe it's easier to block EU users at first and change policies later if profitable.

I think blocking is at least showing you respect the law, compared to just doing nothing and being non compliant.

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