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Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

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Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#901

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm sorry, do you have any idea of the cost of doing these things? Oh indeed yes, which is why for years now I've been warning people to not write to proprietary APIs in the first place. It's a faustian bargain and sooner or later the bill is going to come due! If not because of legal requirements, then because MS or Amazon saturates the market, and has to increase revenue somehow . This is an example of where an ou…

"Don't make HTTP calls outside of our borders." "We're not fragmenting the internet." ???

A better wording would be “don’t make calls into jurisdictions that violate our legal statutes”.

Ok, let me make a simple “marvel comics” example: what if all your calls were funneled through “Putin servers” or “Iran cloud” or “ People's Liberation Army computers”? Would you mind?

I hear you arguing “but we’re the good guys! We’re USA, flag bearers of Democracy!” but no. Really according to EU law, under USA jurisdiction Pricacy Rights are fair game for people like Zuck. The guy that said “ I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS. People just submitted it. I don't know why. They "trust me". Dumb fucks.”

Now, granted: our politicians likely want to stay on top of the consensus forming media, and make sure it’s within reach of their network. Annoying to see all the action moving to a different platform after all the years spent building relationships with the old media, but that’s the business.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#902

If you think that launching your app in a another region is hard, there is currently a case being evaluated in Europe which is evaluating the argument that even if the data never leaves the EU and the provider is a European entity but affiliated with or a subsidiary of a US company, that this is stil considered a violation. So unfortunately just moving hardware locations may be insufficient, even forming a new entity…

I mean, I assume the US are interested in this exchange as well. If they are, they could lead by example and reform the CLOUD act or implement some more effective data protection regulations themselves.

We aren't in this mess because the EU somehow wants to nationalize the internet, we are because with current legislation, US companies can be forced to hand over whatever data they posess, no matter where it's stored.

Not a lawyer, but my current understanding of the current events is more or less the EU saying "if it's subject to the CLOUD act, it violates the GDPR". That's a pretty clear indication of what's wrong.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#903
post #652
post #644

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not worried about most people, I'm worried about the people that the USA does go after, because the USA usually goes after good people who rightfully criticized what they're doing.

> USA usually goes after good people who rightfully criticized what they're doing With drone strikes and disappearings?! Wow! Do you have an example?

The USA does drone strikes all the time, not only against minor targets, but with egregious collateral damage. Listing examples isn't even worth the energy because this is common knowledge and a simple google search would reveal hundreds if not thousands of these killings.

It was US Military leaks via WikiLeaks that first got Julian Assange onto the USA's hit list, and if and when they get their hands on him, they will make him disappear into a gruesome privatized prison system where he will have no right to be heard, because he published things the government didn't want people to know about.

I don't care if I, personally, will fall victim to this. Trusting the USA is a stupid thing to do, and you have to accept that they are capable of doing a great deal of harm to anyone they want to, regardless of nationality.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#904

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a startup you are typically better served by a DigitalOcean-level of complexity, and there are plenty of such offers in the EU (Hetzner Cloud, Gridscale, OVH, etc) As an actual startup founder who started as a 1 man startup, strongly disagree. Spent maybe $200 a month on Google Cloud, got an actual production ready cluster. Scaled up to Millions in revenue, never had to deal with any Linux Server admin BS. More…

> never had to deal with any Linux Server admin BS. Oh, you just had to deal with a different flavor of BS. Or you was lucky and everything just worked out for you (but why Google Cloud and not some PaaS like Heroku, so you don't have to deal with cloud infrastructure/servers BS altogether?) I've been both a system administrator, managing GNU/Linux and FreeBSD servers in the ancient ages, and DevOps guy doing all sor…

My server load was not the size I needed 20 dedicated servers, but far too much for Herkou. Just running a 120 core 24/7/365 on heroku is like.. all of my revenue. (Vs 1% on google cloud and maybe .1% on hertzer).

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#905

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a startup you are typically better served by a DigitalOcean-level of complexity, and there are plenty of such offers in the EU (Hetzner Cloud, Gridscale, OVH, etc) As an actual startup founder who started as a 1 man startup, strongly disagree. Spent maybe $200 a month on Google Cloud, got an actual production ready cluster. Scaled up to Millions in revenue, never had to deal with any Linux Server admin BS. More…

Tangential, but assuming you're talking about Listing Mirror? I considered working on a similar product a few years ago, but felt the market was too competitive. Interesting you were able to compete with the plethora of similar services.

Indeed.

Pros and cons to being in a crowded market.

From day 1, you KNOW there is demand for your product. You can look up Channel Advisor and see the revenue. And 20 smaller companies under fighting for the rest.

Cons of course being, you have to figue out how to compete with all of these guys ;)

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#906
post #891

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US has plenty of customers. If I had to drop EU, I will. It's a nice bonus, but not a core requirement.

That seems good. Someone could copy your business and spin up on the EU market. If its profitable its profitable and its no worry for you. If its not profitable then the EU market is not large enough to carry the product on its own. GDP of the US is around $25 trillion, and EU is around $18 trillion, and population wise there are around 300 million people in the US and 400 million people in the EU. Might I ask you wh…

I am not 1 man anymore, we grew up a bit. But we are an ecommerce platform, basically centered around the big US marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, walmart.com). Yes Amazon and eBay are in Europe, so we are there.. but no say UK or France specific markets at this time.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#907

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, if you legit need 20 servers than it might make sense for you. I would fit on like 2-3 decent sized servers if I did co-location, and would save not even 1 developer-day of salary...

You can rent 2 to 3 dedicated servers at affordable rates.

Right, but my time is worth more than what I could possibly save at my scale. You have to find the right balance.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#908

If you think that launching your app in a another region is hard, there is currently a case being evaluated in Europe which is evaluating the argument that even if the data never leaves the EU and the provider is a European entity but affiliated with or a subsidiary of a US company, that this is stil considered a violation. So unfortunately just moving hardware locations may be insufficient, even forming a new entity…

[deleted]

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#909

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, a French website which keeps private information about its users must not - ethically, morally - use US services which are accessible to US intelligence agencies. That is irrespective of any legislation or court rulings, it's just common sense.

Since everyone is spying on everyone, what's the ethical or moral issue here?

Somehow there is lot of complaining about China doing it... I really don't understand that one...

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#910
post #881

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So your argument is out of date and no longer valid.

I like the hot take but it speaks to the bigger point. The dual stack didnt kill the business, nor did the privacy law. The company failed - it is what it is, and it sucks for the team - but you can't blame the EU protecting privacy/rights for bad business.

Standing up a second stack certainly didn't help. And who knows what the opportunity cost was.
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