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Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

express.co.uk

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Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#131

Post by mytailorisrich »

elAhmo wrote: post #37

> The ICO also confirmed that companies could not avoid accountability by withdrawing their services in the UK. This is quite a slippery slope. If I host a website in one country, I do not necessarily care where people access my website from. It is not like I actively provide a service to them - they just use internet (decentralised network) to access it. What if I publish a newspaper here, someone takes it where the…

What they mean, and to take an example that it purposely extreme: If you kill someone in a country you cannot avoid accountability in law by fleeing that country.

If they breached laws and regulations then withdrawing their service from the country afterwards does not change anything regarding those breaches (investigation still ongoing, though).

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#133

Post by adventured »

noir_lord wrote: post #41
bArray wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As somebody from the UK, I think this is a great form of protest against the government.

Same - frankly google/alphabet should just HTTP 451 the UK (and I say that as a brit/someone in the UK). It'd be interesting to see how fast the policy would get reversed then. This was always a stupid policy and so protesting it by pulling services is one way to draw attention to that.

If big tech wants a reaction, pull all investment out of the UK.

Microsoft + Google + Amazon + Nvidia + Meta + Apple = $630 billion in annual operating income.

They'll react to a change in capital investment faster than anything else.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#134

Post by IlikeKitties »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #131
elAhmo wrote: post #37

> The ICO also confirmed that companies could not avoid accountability by withdrawing their services in the UK. This is quite a slippery slope. If I host a website in one country, I do not necessarily care where people access my website from. It is not like I actively provide a service to them - they just use internet (decentralised network) to access it. What if I publish a newspaper here, someone takes it where the…

What they mean, and to take an example that it purposely extreme: If you kill someone in a country you cannot avoid accountability in law by fleeing that country. If they breached laws and regulations then withdrawing their service from the country afterwards does not change anything regarding those breaches (investigation still ongoing, though).

This is neither comparable nor a good example.

It's not comparable because the "crime" has been committed in the hosting country (where it's arguably not even a crime) and it's a bad example because there are many incidents of murderers fleeing to non-extradition countries.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#135

Post by Jenk »

elAhmo wrote: post #118
wiether wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It appears that you are mixing things here. It's not about "hosting a website", it's about providing services. If you provide services, like selling a newspaper, in the UK, you need to respect their laws, or you will suffer the legal implications of not doing so. And regarding the accountability, it refers to the fact that imgur USED TO provide services in the UK: > We have been clear that exiting the UK does not all…

What service is Imgur providing in the UK specifically?

Advertisement.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#136

Post by mytailorisrich »

IlikeKitties wrote: post #134
mytailorisrich wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What they mean, and to take an example that it purposely extreme: If you kill someone in a country you cannot avoid accountability in law by fleeing that country. If they breached laws and regulations then withdrawing their service from the country afterwards does not change anything regarding those breaches (investigation still ongoing, though).

This is neither comparable nor a good example. It's not comparable because the "crime" has been committed in the hosting country (where it's arguably not even a crime) and it's a bad example because there are many incidents of murderers fleeing to non-extradition countries.

I did say it was extreme on purpose to make the point clear, or so I thought. Looks like it isn't clear to you...

Whatever you think of my example, it is exactly the same legal reasoning at play here. If you broke the law then withdrawing does not change that and accountability.

> It's not comparable because the "crime" has been committed in the hosting country

Obviously not, that's the whole point: They may (investigation ongoing) have breached UK law. So, to really labour the point, if you breach the law in one country then cutting links with that country afterwards does not change anything.

Now, to be a bit more substantive than this tedious bike-shedding, I think the UK are just trying to send a message here even if enforcement may be difficult. The EU could do the same with the GDPR since it is the same type of law (global reach and applicability).

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#137

Post by Barrin92 »

physarum_salad wrote: post #51

Hopefully many more companies do this and British internet users migrate to use of VPNs. This will apply maximum pressure on the government to reverse these parochial laws.

>This will apply maximum pressure on the government to reverse these parochial laws

Whatever the annual revenue of imgur was is now up for grabs for any British entrepreneur willing to build an image hosting site and unless British people have an innate preference for exporting their data to the US they'll likely stick with that. In other words, it's a good opportunity for the domestic tech sector, that's what happens in most cases when foreign companies tend to be blocked.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#138

Post by IlikeKitties »

roenxi wrote: post #9

I suppose this is a serious question - does this mean that in theory HN should ban UK users? Or is HN likely compliant with this law? It is hard to pierce through the Orwellian language in the article (does "safeguarding children’s personal information" mean retaining or deleting the data?).

HN is already non-compliant with several data privacy laws

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#140

Post by patrickmay »

layer8 wrote: post #127
sammy2255 wrote: post #38

How do you "pull out" of the UK if you are not a UK company, you are a US company, hosted in the US, and proxied by Fastly. There's nothing to do? You do not need to abide by UK laws, even if your website is accessible from there.

You are sending data into the UK, hence you have to abide by their laws regarding said data.

As the owner of a U.S. based website, I am not sending data anywhere. Some people in the U.K. might request data and download it from my site. I'm not forcing it on them.
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