[huddo121]

My understanding of it is that HN/YCombinator would also have to be targeting EU customers directly, such as by offering the service in EU languages (english probably wouldn't count) or offering prices in EU currencies.

[cjbprime]

Or placing Google Ads that promote HN targeted in European countries, which seems like a more plausible situation.

[jakeogh]

Not trying to argue, I don't know the GDPR details, maybe it's written that way, but that wouldn't matter. EU law does not apply to US corporations or citizens unless they are in the EU or are concerned about getting assets taken that are in the EU.

[zaarn]

EU laws can totally apply to US corporations or citizens. It may not be enforceable however. (The US has a good history of applying their laws on non-US citizens, just check who has been sued over copyright violations)

[jakeogh]

Hard to say it applies of it's not enforceable. That's re-defining apply to meaninglessness. It's also a window into the argument that there's no attempt to make "global gov" via subversion of national sovereignty.

[zaarn]

It's not entirely meaningless.

If the law applies that means a corporation could get into hot water if customers or vendors in the EU don't want or can't trade with them anymore.

The law applies to them in the sense that if they don't follow it, they face negative repercussions. It is not enforceable by the EU directly since they aren't in their jurisdiction.

Application and Enforcement of Law are, atleast IMO, separate things. It's an implication relationship of Enforcement->Application. Application alone does not mean it is enforced but enforcement means it's applied.

Difference being that if the law applies then the EU might want to enforce but lacks the teeth to. They would if they could.

[jakeogh]

True. It's a nice demonstration of why capitalistic markets and sovereign countries are good things.

If a company I do business with is subverting my rights (in this case the ability to even remember something), I'll gleefully stop using them.

Astroturf corps are salivating at the possibilities.

[zaarn]

The problem usually starts to occur when the company that starts subverting your rights is too monopolistic on a market with either a high barrier to entry or a strong networking effect (CPU/GPU vendors and social networks).

In this case choosing another vendor may not be easy (find a GPU that isn't AMD/NVidia/Matrox and that works with most games or find a social network that allows the same reach as facebook or find a video sharing site with the same ad revenue and reach as youtube)