Shutting Down Forum (GDPR) • Hacker News Board

Re: Shutting Down Forum (GDPR)

#131

Post by parenthephobia » Fri, Jun 01, 2018, 10:59 PM UTC

infinitismal8 wrote: post #90

ashelmire wrote: post #83

Could/should probably ignore GPDR requests if your business operations are entirely US based, whether or not anyone from the EU uses your site. US national sovereignty doesn't disappear because the EU says jump. We are not bound by the laws of governments other than our own. You can probably ignore them anyway if you aren't a big company. With millions of these troll letters going around (and probably getting ignored…

If you make money from EU users and are US based you need to be GDPR compliant or they will target you through payment processors and ad networks. If you don't make money from EU users and don't want to be GDPR compliant you should probably just shut them off if you ever want to operate in the EU in the future

> they will target you through payment processors and ad networks

How will they do that, and on what legal basis?

Re: Shutting Down Forum (GDPR)

#132

Post by infinitismal8 » Fri, Jun 01, 2018, 11:13 PM UTC

skinnymuch wrote: post #127

infinitismal8 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you make money from EU users and are US based you need to be GDPR compliant or they will target you through payment processors and ad networks. If you don't make money from EU users and don't want to be GDPR compliant you should probably just shut them off if you ever want to operate in the EU in the future

The OP initially says if you’re small time they likely won’t target you. Are you really saying if you’re super small time, the EU is going to go after your payment processing? Of course anything is possible. It seems highly unlikely though. Then his/her last point is that they’ll give you a chance to correct things. Your post doesn’t seem to cover that either.

They will go after you the moment you become bigger and if you are person running a business one of your hopes is that you won't remain small time forever

Re: Shutting Down Forum (GDPR)

#133

Post by marssaxman » Fri, Jun 01, 2018, 11:34 PM UTC

amyjess wrote: post #45

zerostar07 wrote: post #28

He's still obliged to respond to that letter. Can't hide like this. (guys, I'm being sarcastic)

According to his GitHub, he's in San Francisco. He's a US citizen living in the US. The EU can't touch him.

Does that continue to be true if the US citizen goes to visit an EU country? It'd really suck to get arrested on your vacation because you ignored some troll's GDPR-based harassment. I don't know how this works.

Re: Shutting Down Forum (GDPR)

#134

Post by ryanwaggoner » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 1:10 AM UTC

subway wrote: post #47

danShumway wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No lawyers required. Phrases like this just sound weird to me. If there's a risk that someone could sue you over something, from a business perspective I have always been taught that you avoid it, period, until you get a lawyer. I wonder if this is a cultural difference between the US and EU? Might explain some of the different reactions people have had to the legislation.

Despite all the bluster to the contrary, in the US we avoid accepting responsibility for our actions at all costs. To the point that business schools now effectively teach that the correct strategy is to put your fingers in your ears, and yell "la la la" until somebody actually smacks you.

Which business schools are those?

Re: Shutting Down Forum (GDPR)

#135

Post by ryanwaggoner » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 1:29 AM UTC

jbob2000 wrote: post #120

RaleyField wrote: post #119

Can't wait for future nightmare letters coming from Saudi Arabia when they find moral indecency on my web site or China finding imperialist propaganda that needs addressing. This will be used as a precedent for every other control freak pushing their values onto us. What happened to free and open internet?

This already happens. Russia sent notices to GitHub about certain documents that were hosted there. China and Saudi Arabia just straight up block things they don’t like.

It would be much better for the EU to just block these sites that they think are violating EU citizen privacy rights.

But they’d never do that, because their citizens still want to use the sites, so it’d be unpopular. And ineffective since people would just work around it. Apparently these pesky humans don’t care about their privacy like they should!

Plus then the EU can’t levy billions in fines.

Re: Shutting Down Forum (GDPR)

#136

Post by trobertson » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 1:53 AM UTC

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #134

subway wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite all the bluster to the contrary, in the US we avoid accepting responsibility for our actions at all costs. To the point that business schools now effectively teach that the correct strategy is to put your fingers in your ears, and yell "la la la" until somebody actually smacks you.

Which business schools are those?

Harvard Business School and its wannabes.

Re: Shutting Down Forum (GDPR)

#137

Post by stickfigure » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 3:48 AM UTC

beberlei wrote: post #56

mmanfrin wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just act in good faith and GDPR will not bite. Do you have $20million to make that gamble?

20 million is the max penalty for repeat offenders. See article 83 about fines being proportinate to the offense: https://gdpr-info.eu/art-83-gdpr/ This is a european thing, if any law says $x is the max fine or alike, then for a first time offense you usually get much less.

I would still be bankrupted by "much less" than $20 million.

Re: Shutting Down Forum (GDPR)

#138

Post by cpncrunch » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 3:55 AM UTC

marssaxman wrote: post #133

amyjess wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to his GitHub, he's in San Francisco. He's a US citizen living in the US. The EU can't touch him.

Does that continue to be true if the US citizen goes to visit an EU country? It'd really suck to get arrested on your vacation because you ignored some troll's GDPR-based harassment. I don't know how this works.

If youve ever dealt with the uk ico youll know its true. They refuse to do anything about individual complaints. The gdpr also states that samctions will be determinedby the gravity of the violation and number of users affected, among other factors.

Nothing to worry about for people like the open source project in question. This is way overblown paranoia, but unferstandable given the current hype.

Re: Shutting Down Forum (GDPR)

#139

Post by cpncrunch » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 3:58 AM UTC

_csoz wrote: post #48

jimnotgym wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are right about one thing, the misreading of European law that comes from living in a litigious society. Just act in good faith and GDPR will not bite.

There are litigious people even here, though. Someone who has an axe to grind for whatever reason can keep annoying the DPA until they do go after you.

No, that simply doesnt happen. Ive annoyed the ico in the uk many times and they refuse to do anything for one complaint. I recently got a 500gbp out of court settlement in a spam lawsuit that the ico did fuck all about.

Re: Shutting Down Forum (GDPR)

#140

Post by icelancer » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 4:25 AM UTC

bovermyer wrote: post #85

The GDPR seems to me to be just another example of nontechnical authorities trying to regulate what they don't understand. Why don't more technical people become politicians, or at least form lobbying groups or think tanks?

>> Why don't more technical people become politicians, or at least form lobbying groups or think tanks?

Technical fields pay a lot more and you control most of your destiny.

Politics pays nothing and you deal with bureaucracy.

Hmm.