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Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

express.co.uk

41–50 of 735 posts

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

#41
post #31

> Mr Capel said: “We have been clear that exiting the UK does not allow an organisation to avoid responsibility for any prior infringement of data protection law, and our investigation remains ongoing. Block UK access now just in case.

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.

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

#42

How is one country able to fine businesses in other countries? What legal authority or ability do they have to do anything?

Placing the fines is pretty easy; they just go through their legal system, finish up the case and get their judgement. Russia has a giant outstanding fine against Google for example since Google is not censoring things the Kremlin doesn't like, even though Google has no corporate presence in Russia and the fine is iirc now larger than the entire world economy. (So it's an unrealistic amount designed to deter Google more than anything else in practice.)

The difficulty is getting enforcement; in practice, what happens is that the fine is put down as outstanding and if any executive or employee of the company enters the country, they're arrested and held hostage until the company pays up (or are held directly responsible for whatever the company is accused of). Most countries usually have corporate presency laws to avoid this sort of scenario though.

Alternatively, the judgement can be enforced through diplomatic channels, but that's a giant clusterfuck and unlikely to succeed unless it's something that's very blatantly a crime in both countries, since it's effectively retrying the case. (And even then it can depend on if the country just doesn't feel like cooperating for that specific case, for no other reason than spite; France for example is fond of doing this.)

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

#43
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…

I think it's a conflict that was baked into the Internet at its conception. A non-geographic service overlaid on top of a world with a huge amount of geography and borders.

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

#45

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.

The UK government does not care. The law applies no matter where you are hosted, where you are incorporated or who is proxiying you.

>You do not need to abide by UK laws, even if your website is accessible from there.

The UK government does not agree.

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

#46

Following this logic, I suppose that, in the future, cars that cannot automatically detect the presence of a child in a wheelchair and prevent the engine from starting will be banned.

Why are you being sarcastic about this. Obviously that will be a legal requirement at some point, just like constantly supervising the driver for tiredness is.

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

#47
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's clear to me, it's a huge risk for any company to allow access to UK visitors at this stage. All companies should be blocking all UK visitors. It's just too much risk for them to take. The fault is obviously an incompetent and authoritarian UK government, but that's what the UK overlords have agreed.

shouldn't it be the other way round? if the UK doesn't like something a non-UK company is doing it should be them that go through the trouble of blocking it. If I have a website I'm pretty sure I'm bound to break some random country's law without knowing Answering my own question, I guess it's exceptionalism of the powerful countries where they can just bully you into following their law

Why should they do anything when they can push the burden of compliance onto you?

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

#48

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.

The UK government does not care. The law applies no matter where you are hosted, where you are incorporated or who is proxiying you. >You do not need to abide by UK laws, even if your website is accessible from there. The UK government does not agree.

I suppose in their defense, culturally, the UK hasn't respected many borders apart from their own so this really isn't anything new.

Zing aside, I'd be thrilled to see whatever prosecutor or litigator or whatever they call them over there bring a case against a US based company for hosting content in the US, geoblocking the UK, a UK resident using a VPN to bypass that block, and making the case that that is somehow the US company's fault.

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

#49

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.

The UK government does not care. The law applies no matter where you are hosted, where you are incorporated or who is proxiying you. >You do not need to abide by UK laws, even if your website is accessible from there. The UK government does not agree.

But its still not the UK government's decision. They don't have sovereignty over other nations, as much as they'd like to think they do.

All they can legally do is bitch and moan and order UK ISPs to block. There's no action they can legally take against Imgur.

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

#50
post #33
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's clear to me, it's a huge risk for any company to allow access to UK visitors at this stage. All companies should be blocking all UK visitors. It's just too much risk for them to take. The fault is obviously an incompetent and authoritarian UK government, but that's what the UK overlords have agreed.

It's not specific to the UK: many developed countries are cracking down on Internet businesses. There's going to be an awful lot of regulation, and it will be incompatible between different countries. The one-model-fits-the-whole-world style of business is over: you're going to be confined to national borders again. The opinion polls are clear: the normies want this.

> The opinion polls are clear: the normies want this.

Giving normies the vote was a mistake.

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