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

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

#91

Post by orf »

ythn wrote: post #67
mephitix wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 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

More like:

"I want to use your free service and to participate in your monetization model only after you explicitly tell me how you are going to do with my data. If you can't tell me this, and get me to accept the trade off, why should I trust you?" -- EU citizens"

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

#93

Post by outside1234 »

Panoramix wrote: post #83
newman8r wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wi…

If a company does not understand GDPR it's fair to say I don't want them handling my personal data. And it's not like this is new, there was a 2 year period to prepare for this. "Most startups will fail": I do not see that happening. You will first receive a warning. The EU won't really care if you are a tiny startup. Unless you are running a shady business, there's not much to worry about.

The problem is not with the spirit of GDPR. I am totally with that. The problem is the liability of it - as a small startup it is seriously scary to think that all it takes is one insane customer to pull the fire alarm and we'd have regulators and fines raining down on us even if we believe with all of our hearts we are doing it right.

Hence, the blocking of the EU - its better to block at the beginning and then expand to the EU once we have revenue to support someone handling this as an employee.

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

#94

Post by outside1234 »

Psilidae wrote: post #92
jakub_jo wrote: post #29

Since there are IP addresses collected and sent to third parties without consent, it violates the GDPR.

By that logic, doesn't the entire Internet fundamentally violate GDPR?

Time to shut down DNS!

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

#95

Post by Psilidae »

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 I were running my own company right now, this is probably the approach I would take. I'm a big privacy advocate, but I'm also anti-authoritarian and don't like being forced into things by overbearing laws.

Blocking Europeans sounds a lot more reasonable than having to hire a lawyer and spend double the time and effort just to be compliant while writing a new JavaScript MVC Todo List app.

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

#96

Post by Barrin92 »

matte_black wrote: post #79
mephitix wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You are a pest when you use a service and give nothing back in return, stealing resources that are better allocated to users that actually contribute to revenue.

I know this sounds extreme but you could always go with the good old approach of charging users money for provided goods and services, instead of monetizing their data or throwing ads at them.

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

#97

Post by Nursie »

outside1234 wrote: post #93
Panoramix wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a company does not understand GDPR it's fair to say I don't want them handling my personal data. And it's not like this is new, there was a 2 year period to prepare for this. "Most startups will fail": I do not see that happening. You will first receive a warning. The EU won't really care if you are a tiny startup. Unless you are running a shady business, there's not much to worry about.

The problem is not with the spirit of GDPR. I am totally with that. The problem is the liability of it - as a small startup it is seriously scary to think that all it takes is one insane customer to pull the fire alarm and we'd have regulators and fines raining down on us even if we believe with all of our hearts we are doing it right. Hence, the blocking of the EU - its better to block at the beginning and then expa…

> as a small startup it is seriously scary to think that all it takes is one insane customer to pull the fire alarm and we'd have regulators and fines raining down on us even if we believe with all of our hearts we are doing it right.

You know this is not what would happen, right, that you'd be given advice and the opportunity to towards an amicable resolution?

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

#98

Post by LinuxBender »

chatmasta wrote: post #44
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...

You’re going to get downvoted for that comment, but you do raise a legitimate question of enforceability. Sure the EU can say any company in the world who has EU residents’ data should comply with GDPR. But... or what exactly? The EU doesn’t have the power to fine companies outside of their jurisdiction. I mean, they can try. But as far as I know there is no enforceability to ensure that the company actually pays the…

I won't DV anyone. I use an addon that hides the down arrows. [0]

I suppose when I asked the question, I am assuming internet businesses for the most part don't isolate themselves to a specific region, so their reply probably makes more sense for the businesses that operate in a small locality. Perhaps they have such a business. I should have considered that prior to asking.

Where this might start to get interesting is if people use infrastructure that is in multiple regions and that infrastructure provider has an agreement to block companies that do not comply. So if AWS for example had such an agreement, then non compliant companies could find their sites broken, even if they are only hosted in the U.S., not that this would ever happen, but it could.

[0] - https://userstyles.org/styles/9038/hide-down-vote-arrows-and...

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

#99

Post by cavisne »

DanBlake wrote: post #7

Considered this before, but it doesnt work. IIRC, the law applies to euro citizens both living in country and abroad. As such, geoip blocking is not a working strategy. (a french citizen who lives in japan still had GDPR rights) A better one would likely be a clickwrap agreement for all users stating "European citizens are not allowed on this service" which they have to click a "I am not european" tickbox to.

You hear wildly different takes on this depending on the source. Troy hunt had a (now seemingly deleted) article where he claimed you have to be targeting EU users specifically, ie offering products in a european currency, EU domain, eu language (other than english).

Dropping a IP block on the EU seems to be a pretty clear indication that you arent targeting EU users.

EDIT: Found the article https://www.troyhunt.com/free-course-the-gdpr-attack-plan/

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

#100

Post by notananthem »

drspacemonkey wrote: post #69
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.

Some of us do work for companies who respect and promote GDPR who are not based in EU, and we're hiring. Leave, that's a perfect example of terrible leadership.
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