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by freehunter 2983 days ago
Hmm. I'm not sure about that. If Apple and Google won't pull out of China even though China makes them do all sorts of business stuff they disagree with, I highly doubt they (web companies) would pull out of the entire EU.

It would be absolutely incredible if Facebook et al "took their ball and went home" throwing away 500 million customers.
2 comments
jonas21 2983 days ago
Google did effectively pull out of China in 2010 [1].

But in the case of the GDPR, it probably helps Google and Facebook more than it hurts them -- they can afford to jump through all of its hoops while smaller competitors might have trouble. It's essentially a barrier to entry.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_China

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downandout 2983 days ago
Of course not, because Apple, Google, Facebook et al have the resources to spend millions on attorneys to implement the GDPR. My comment comes from the perspective of an operator of several small sites that get a total of a few million visitors per month combined. I'm not spending millions on attorneys, and EU traffic is only incidental to my sites anyway, so I am indeed taking my ball and going home.

This will make a difference for some users on some of the forums I run, as they will be banned with an apology and an invitation to come back if they ever move out of the EU. But it's not worth taking on the liability of potentially millions of dollars in fines for accidental non-compliance with a heavy handed, massively complex law that is up for different interpretations in the courts of no less than 28 unique countries. Unless you're in the EU or are a multi-billion dollar company with a large legal department, accepting EU traffic post-GDPR is an act of insanity.

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KozmoNau7 2982 days ago
Are you hosted in Europe, and/or do you do business from the EU?

No? Don't bother instituting a stupid ban like that, then. And stop scaremongering.

GDPR applies to businesses.

Besides, compliance isn't too bad for something like a forum. Just purge the relevant user records and posts, if requested to or when a user deletes their account.

Source: I am doing GDPR compliance on web applications for a major telco.

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downandout 2982 days ago
GDPR applies to businesses.

I have a business. And yes, I have spoken to GSPR compliance people, so GDPR has already cost me enough money. Compliance is a murky proposition at best, since this law can be interpreted in different ways in 28 different countries - all of whom will be looking for ways to maximize the fines they collect under it from foreign companies.

Since you are in the GDPR compliance space, surely you know that it does apply not just to businesses that are hosted in the EU or do business there. Rather, anyone that knowingly accepts traffic/data from the EU is vulnerable to it.

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KozmoNau7 2982 days ago
And that's a good thing. Privacy is a basic human right, and it's about time we got some regulation of this area.
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