What does the GDPR actually mean for startups?
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What does the GDPR actually mean for startups?
1–10 of 56 posts
Re: What does the GDPR actually mean for startups?
#2>> The scope of this protection extends to any natural person in the EU which can mean users, employees, vendors, partners, customers or even members of the general public.
I hadn’t considered GDPR from the perspective of a company collecting/maintaining data about employees (as opposed to clients, prospects, website visitors etc.). Do the same rules apply inside a company for an employee as they do for a user of a web service? Can I, for example, request a copy of all identifiable data collected and maintained about me by my company in the same way I might request it of Facebook or Twitter?
Re: What does the GDPR actually mean for startups?
#3As a solo founder with already too much to do. I simply looked at the GDPR and decided to kick that can down the road for 12 months after launch of my start up.
Although a UK Citizen, will be bootstrapping the startup in the US and simply blocking EU buyers from accessing the site.
Why you may ask?
- I don't have the funds to hire a DPO.
- I don't have the funds to hire out an expensive company to go through the platform in minute details and prepare it for GDPR.
- I don't have the resources to deal with inquiries to that nightmare letter or any questions for that matter.
- I don't have the resources to monitor the 3rd parties privacy policies that I send data to use their service and constantly update my own.
From my perspective this is just burdens my company with more costs in doing business with the EU. I'm more than happy to concentrate on the US and the rest of the world.
One issue that I'd like to point out as well. Some commentators mention that the EU is ~22-25% of the worlds GDP to be accessed. Well, that's a complete fallacy.
The EU unlike the US isn't a contiguous block. There are 28 nations and 24 languages to deal with. You simply can't launch in the EU like you would in the US. Each country has it's own idiosyncrasies to deal with. Which is why some companies just launch in France, Germany, UK and then push out the other smaller markets years down the line and in some cases not at all. There may be other local regulations to deal with.
My opinion is that the GDPR over the long term, will hamper the ability of EU companies to do business on the world stage, even more than currently. But that's a completely different topic for another time.
Re: What does the GDPR actually mean for startups?
#4>> The scope of this protection extends to any natural person in the EU which can mean users, employees, vendors, partners, customers or even members of the general public. I hadn’t considered GDPR from the perspective of a company collecting/maintaining data about employees (as opposed to clients, prospects, website visitors etc.). Do the same rules apply inside a company for an employee as they do for a user of a w…
Yes. You can request a copy of any personal information held by any company. This is a pre-GDPR right too.
Re: What does the GDPR actually mean for startups?
#5As a solo founder with already too much to do. I simply looked at the GDPR and decided to kick that can down the road for 12 months after launch of my start up. Although a UK Citizen, will be bootstrapping the startup in the US and simply blocking EU buyers from accessing the site. Why you may ask? - I don't have the funds to hire a DPO. - I don't have the funds to hire out an expensive company to go through the plat…
If it helps any, I read that a DPO is only needed for companies larger than X number of employees. I think X was like 50 or 100. And that the DPO "role" could be fulfilled by anyone.
Re: What does the GDPR actually mean for startups?
#6As a solo founder with already too much to do. I simply looked at the GDPR and decided to kick that can down the road for 12 months after launch of my start up. Although a UK Citizen, will be bootstrapping the startup in the US and simply blocking EU buyers from accessing the site. Why you may ask? - I don't have the funds to hire a DPO. - I don't have the funds to hire out an expensive company to go through the plat…
Seems like the GDPR is working as expected. If your company can't be bothered to apply some common sense to handling user data (which is what the GDPR is mostly about, if you take a couple of hours to actually read it), then we're better off without it. I'm sure if what you're doing is relevant, some other company will happily take your place.
Re: What does the GDPR actually mean for startups?
#7As a solo founder with already too much to do. I simply looked at the GDPR and decided to kick that can down the road for 12 months after launch of my start up. Although a UK Citizen, will be bootstrapping the startup in the US and simply blocking EU buyers from accessing the site. Why you may ask? - I don't have the funds to hire a DPO. - I don't have the funds to hire out an expensive company to go through the plat…
What's your startup?
Re: What does the GDPR actually mean for startups?
#8As a solo founder with already too much to do. I simply looked at the GDPR and decided to kick that can down the road for 12 months after launch of my start up. Although a UK Citizen, will be bootstrapping the startup in the US and simply blocking EU buyers from accessing the site. Why you may ask? - I don't have the funds to hire a DPO. - I don't have the funds to hire out an expensive company to go through the plat…
If it helps any, I read that a DPO is only needed for companies larger than X number of employees. I think X was like 50 or 100. And that the DPO "role" could be fulfilled by anyone.
As far as I know it's only required for companies whose core activity is large-scale monitoring of users.
Re: What does the GDPR actually mean for startups?
#9As a solo founder with already too much to do. I simply looked at the GDPR and decided to kick that can down the road for 12 months after launch of my start up. Although a UK Citizen, will be bootstrapping the startup in the US and simply blocking EU buyers from accessing the site. Why you may ask? - I don't have the funds to hire a DPO. - I don't have the funds to hire out an expensive company to go through the plat…
Seems like the GDPR is working as expected. If your company can't be bothered to apply some common sense to handling user data (which is what the GDPR is mostly about, if you take a couple of hours to actually read it), then we're better off without it. I'm sure if what you're doing is relevant, some other company will happily take your place.
If your company can't be bothered to apply some common sense to handling user data
Which of the specific points the GP mentioned do you think is about how they handle user data? As far as I can see, every one of them is administrative in nature.
They're not saying they're going to be tracking everyone in shady ways. They're not saying they're going to be storing unencrypted details and unhashed passwords. They're not saying they're going to be forwarding your every secret to a Sith lord.
They are saying they don't have time to respond to a legal DoS if someone sends them a letter obviously written in bad faith, and they are saying they don't have the resources for their startup to police every major service they depend on. I imagine almost any startup would be in the same position.
As it happens, this person also seems to have some common misunderstandings about their obligations and may be over-estimating the actual risks. That also happens when you write this kind of law, and as we see here, the chilling effect is real.
Re: What does the GDPR actually mean for startups?
#10As a solo founder with already too much to do. I simply looked at the GDPR and decided to kick that can down the road for 12 months after launch of my start up. Although a UK Citizen, will be bootstrapping the startup in the US and simply blocking EU buyers from accessing the site. Why you may ask? - I don't have the funds to hire a DPO. - I don't have the funds to hire out an expensive company to go through the plat…
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