Michigan 'digital age' bills pulled after privacy concerns raised

Post by troad » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 1:19 PM UTC

embedding-shape wrote: post #3

groby_b wrote: post #2

HTTP 451 "We recognise you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore cannot grant you access at this time. For any issues, e-mail us at info@franklinnews.org or call us at (847) 497-5230." This is extremely funny given it's an article about privacy concerns :)

I love seeing this, and love seeing regulations working exactly as wanted! What I see is basically "We're unable to serve this website without compromising your privacy, so instead of pretending or giving you a choice, we give you this message so you can turn around".

Post by philipallstar » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 1:23 PM UTC

master-lincoln wrote: post #10

ciupicri wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right... as if can trust some random American or other non-European website that it really respects the law. What are you gonna do if it breaks the GDPR law? GDPR ruined the Internet.

I'd argue greedy capitalists ruined it. They were also the cause of GDPR

Post by ataru » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 1:24 PM UTC

embedding-shape wrote: post #3

groby_b wrote: post #2

HTTP 451 "We recognise you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore cannot grant you access at this time. For any issues, e-mail us at info@franklinnews.org or call us at (847) 497-5230." This is extremely funny given it's an article about privacy concerns :)

I love seeing this, and love seeing regulations working exactly as wanted! What I see is basically "We're unable to serve this website without compromising your privacy, so instead of pretending or giving you a choice, we give you this message so you can turn around".

Post by embedding-shape » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 1:26 PM UTC

plandis wrote: post #7

groby_b wrote: post #2

HTTP 451 "We recognise you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore cannot grant you access at this time. For any issues, e-mail us at info@franklinnews.org or call us at (847) 497-5230." This is extremely funny given it's an article about privacy concerns :)

A US based non-profit news organization isn’t going to spend money to pay lawyers to ensure they meet a regulatory burden that doesn’t affect their core demographic.

Post by master-lincoln » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 1:31 PM UTC

embedding-shape wrote: post #14

troad wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "We're unable to serve this website without compromising your privacy... " More accurately, "we do not have the staff or funds to figure out what every single random law around the globe requires of us, and since foreign countries are not a realistic advertising market for a local Michigan newspaper, there's really no reason for us to try."

Well, you don't have to do any of that stuff if you either are upfront about selling user data and ask if it's OK, or if you just don't do that stuff at all.