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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

#351

Post by darkkindness »

taysic wrote: post #325
saagarjha wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No: the law wants you to not have to do this. The law wants you to stop collecting data for things that are not core to your business. The issue is that companies are trying to maintain the status quo as much as possible, and annoying users with these does that.

Personalized, targeted advertising is how many services make money. So what is meant by 'the law wants you to not have to do this'. The law wants these services to not make money to cover their expenses? Or scale back their operations?

Sometimes personalized advertising makes money at the cost of privacy, e.g. selling of personal data. In the EU, data privacy is a right. So the law isn't maliciously making life hard for these 'services', but if your entire monetization strategy is breaching data privacy, then good riddance to you.

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

#352

Post by zmmmmm »

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.

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

Although they don't say it that way, that seems to be what most GDPR advocates are implicitly advising. They keep saying not to panic and shut down your web site or block europeans because and the EU is not going to sue you as a first step, etc etc.

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

#353

Post by rightos »

orwin wrote: post #342
rightos wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm wondering this too actually, I run a small business, we collect only the bare minimum of information from our customers but we do have some European customers. I'm ignoring GDPR completely, is there any downside for me? Will they block customers from using my service? Will they sieze my European cloud servers? Or can I safely do nothing as I currently am because I don't reside or have a registered business in Eur…

You have two solution: 1: ignore GDPR, you'll probably fly under. And if you dont, fine are scaled for business and people affected, as well as privacy infraction. Encrypt your backups, encrypt PII if you can do it effortlessly, and you're good. If you are not using emails except for checking double inscription, encrypt them too, the entropy is low BUT this is better than nothing . 2: If you have some time and money…

Is there some way they can fine me with me being in a country completely and totally unrelated to the EU?

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

#354

Post by __jal »

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.

> than an opportunity to offer users better privacy

I have a site that I did this with. I also wish the US would pass a law like this. And I beg to differ. No, I don't believe this is self-contradictory.

The issue is risk. I'm a one-man band - the site in question does make money most of the time, but not much, and it has always been much more of a hobby/labor of love than a business[1]. And when any legal change means I might end up with legal grief or potentially not be visit European relatives again, even if I generally approve of the change, I'm going to knife it because there is no planet on which the site means more to me than the risk.

My plan right now is to let the big boys who can afford it take the initial lawsuits and let them shake out what the vagaries mean, then come back in a year or so and see what my exposure would be if I let ya'll back in.

[1] Oh, and it should already be complaint, at least as I understand 'compliant'; I added notices and rejiggered a few things for selective denial and whatnot. I never have and never will sell/rent/share user data, don't integrate with any surveillance/ad networks, etc. But I have no confidence that someone won't see me as a likely target to use to make some point, and hiring a legal consultant for something this size would take it from slightly profitable to a future break-even measured in many years.

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

#355

Post by matwood »

CodeWriter23 wrote: post #341
matwood wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> NOTE: we delete all client data when they cancel already. And we don’t do any creepy marketing. Do you inform your users what data you're collecting, why you're collecting it, and get their consent? Are you taking proper precautions with the expanded PII data (encrypting at rest for example)? You've basically covered the requirements. > Yet needs to be sure they don’t end up giving the company to the EU because som…

€20M / 4% of global revenue isn't fud. Right now, that would kill our bootstrapped operation.

The FUD is losing your company because someone signs up for your marketing email.

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

#356

Post by acatton »

wang_li wrote: post #272
acatton wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a French guy, these type of comments make me smile. The GDPR is basically just the implementation of the French law "Informatique et Liberté" into the European Level. (You can read on HN many Germans saying that it's actually the implementation of the Datenschutzgesetzt. The truth is: these two laws are extremely similar.) This law has been in application since 1978 [1]. And in 2018, we have adtech companies like…

Giving people the option to delete their data is a bit like allowing someone to get their money back two years after eating a meal at a restaurant. Given the EU assertion of global jurisdiction, the GDPR seems like a bit of a trade war and it's surprising more commentators aren't treating it as such. The US should be inspired by this and give online retailers the opportunity to collect and remit sales taxes.

> Giving people the option to delete their data is a bit like allowing someone to get their money back two years after eating a meal at a restaurant.

I'm sorry the analogy is totally flawed. On one hand you have something consumable: food, on the other side that can be made eternal: data.

When making an application that collect data, you just have to make a form/button to give the ability to update/delete data. It's no more different that when you make an adult website, you have to make a page "Are you above 18?"

Sometimes, it sounds to me that people on HN don't have a problem with the law X or Y. They rather have a problem with the concept of regulation in general. (See the comments on all the posts about Germany requiring Uber drivers to have a car insurance with a higher liability.)

But if you want to give an analogy to normal business, a more suitable one would be: "Giving people the option to delete their data is a bit like allowing customers to get their money back on their gift card they purchased 2 years ago"

How is that unfair?

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

#357

Post by dlisboa »

guelo wrote: post #336
jacquesm wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is the EU going to target American banks of American businesses and try to extract fines? You mean like America? That time when the USA decided to enforce their embargo against Cuba by intercepting a payment from one of the Nordics for a bunch of Cuban cigars? No, that's unlikely. > Is the EU going to extradite owners of these businesses? Extremely unlikely, besides that would require the cooperation of the other c…

> You mean like America? I get the impression that a big part of the motivation for GDPR is this type of resentment against America.

The companies that are most guilty of mishandling personal user data are American companies. If it could not apply to them in protection of EU citizens any regulation would be useless.

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

#358

Post by snowwolf »

allan_s wrote: post #324

Even though this post is sarcastic, people forgot that your EU resident could still access you when in vacation or business trip outside of the EU and that they certainly already have plenty of data store fom EU resident, so blocking all european IPs does nothing to help them being compliant.

This is a common misunderstanding. GDPR makes no mention of citizens or residents. It just says “data subjects IN the union”

https://gdpr-info.eu/art-3-gdpr/

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

#359

Post by garmaine »

lima wrote: post #141
shiado wrote: post #113

I simply don't understand how or why a law that has scope in the EU is causing trouble for companies which conduct no business in the EU beyond responding to HTTP requests on a global decentralized telecommunications network. Why would an American internet business which conducts no operations in Europe and has no servers in Europe be subject to regulation that affects the EU? What is going to happen? Is the EU going…

As long as you're just "responding to HTTP requests", there's nothing to worry about and the GDPR does not apply. It's when you start collecting personal data on EU residents, send their personal data to third parties for analytics/targeted advertising, and so on, that things get interesting.

So if your dating site matches gay couples should you expect fines or worse if a Saudi expat uses it?

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

#360

Post by manigandham »

wang_li wrote: post #272
acatton wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a French guy, these type of comments make me smile. The GDPR is basically just the implementation of the French law "Informatique et Liberté" into the European Level. (You can read on HN many Germans saying that it's actually the implementation of the Datenschutzgesetzt. The truth is: these two laws are extremely similar.) This law has been in application since 1978 [1]. And in 2018, we have adtech companies like…

Giving people the option to delete their data is a bit like allowing someone to get their money back two years after eating a meal at a restaurant. Given the EU assertion of global jurisdiction, the GDPR seems like a bit of a trade war and it's surprising more commentators aren't treating it as such. The US should be inspired by this and give online retailers the opportunity to collect and remit sales taxes.

The first part doesn't make sense. This is no different than exporting your data if you stop using a piece of software. Giving data back isn't really an issue of contention, nor is privacy in general.
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