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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

#141

Post by lima »

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.

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

#142

Post by addicted »

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.

If this is anything more than fear of change (I suspect it isn't, once people get a little more accustomed to GDPR and some of the inevitable issues are ironed out), and other device owners start blocking EU citizens, I suspect GDPR may end up being a huge boon for Europeans.

Much like China, which has managed to develop a huge internet industry because it doesn't have to compete with the American competitors, the EU's huge market will provide a lot of space for EU startups if the American competitors refuse to do business in Europe. But unlike China, the GDPR will make those European companies more competitive on the world scene rather than less.

If the choice was between 2 services, one of which complied with GDPR and one which didn't, and explicitly excluded GDPR protected users, I'd assume the vast majority of regular consumers, but definitely businesses, would pick the GDPR compliant one.

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

#144

Post by freedomben »

disconnected wrote: post #32
matte_black wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's no laughing matter for some companies. EU citizens have turned into pests overnight. There are businesses who don't make much money from the EU to justify compliance with the regulations.

> EU citizens have turned into pests overnight. More than USA citizens with dubious DMCA takedown requests?

This strikes me as the typical political response when you are backing a terrible candidate and somebody points out something terrible they do/did. Rather than defend your candidate you respond by attacking theirs. My kids do this all the time when I catch them doing something wrong, "well #{brother} was doing #{badthing}!"

Both seem wrong, can we agree on that? DMCA is a disgusting weapon, as is a lot that the US has done. Does that make weapons created by Europe ok?

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

#145

Post by lima »

CodeWriter23 wrote: post #68
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.

Consider this case, startup app in a niche market, only available on US app stores, and a one man dev team that needs to focus on app dev not compliance for some regulation that could never apply to their customers. Yet needs to be sure they don’t end up giving the company to the EU because someone over there signs up on a marketing list. That’s the startup I’m presently working on. We’ll expand beyond the US borders…

> NOTE: we delete all client data when they cancel already. And we don’t do any creepy marketing.

This does sound like you'll have an easy time complying with GDPR! :)

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

#146

Post by justherefortart »

Tharkun wrote: post #108

I know plenty of people who block all of China, simply to be rid of its many botnes which run rampant and are hosted by network administrators who don't respond to abuse requests. I guess Europeans can now experience how it feels to have parts of the internet made unavailable by whimsical sysadmins.

Doesn't china block itself?

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

#147

Post by mikestew »

matte_black wrote: post #28
logronoide wrote: post #21

I'm the author of the post. My most stupid post is in HN! crazy! I just wanted to be sarcastic and make some laughs about people blocking all traffic from Europe, which is crazy! It's a Friday afternoon blog post to show how cool my product is with Cloudflare Workers and having fun at the same time!

It's no laughing matter for some companies. EU citizens have turned into pests overnight. There are businesses who don't make much money from the EU to justify compliance with the regulations.

EU citizens have turned into pests overnight.

EU citizens turned into "pests" two years ago. Much like Y2K was a "pest" years before January 1, 2000. But unlike EU regulations, Y2K was like The Terminator: there was no appeal process, and it absolutely would not stop...ever, until you fix your Y2K bugs.

GDPR OTOH, eh, maybe there's some way to wiggle out of it? And two years later, when Compliance Day comes, here we are.

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

#148

Post by emodendroket »

jacquesm wrote: post #122
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…

> 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…

There are plenty more examples of the US twisting Europe's arm. Currently it's looking like that is the plan for Iran.

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

#149

Post by emodendroket »

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…

Well, if you don't serve European customers, it doesn't.
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