[dmix]

It still seems like the safest option given the massive risk this legislation is exposing companies. Especially low margin per user businesses like Instapaper. From The Verge:

> because it’s not entirely clear right now what information residents will request, what format that information needs to be in, how to locate it and package it, and whether new infrastructure needs to be created to manage this request pipeline.

So in the meantime they can at least stop the flow of new data from the EU into their system until they are 'compliant' and have systems in place to deal with the existing large amount of EU users/data they already have.

It makes sense to me to be cautious here, plus it has the dual benefit of drawing attention to the real costs/risks the bill has on smaller firms without teams of lawyers and internal human resources (developers, CSRs) to deal with the new obligations imposed on them.

[Hamuko]

>It still seems like the safest option given the massive risk this legislation is exposing companies.

The safest option was actually to comply with the GDPR during the two years it has been in force now. I refuse to believe that the changes required were impossible to perform in two years.

I'd love to know when exactly did Instapaper start looking into the GDPR.

[dmix]

The founder has said that he underestimated the amount of work it was going to take. Anyone who has ever worked on software knows how this stuff happens. You don't truly know how long something is going to take until you dig into the hairy details of implementation.

Plus there are still tons of unknown variables at play with GDPR... even among companies who did spend sufficient time beforehand, as I quoted from the article above. So additionally, the non-obvious requirements further makes the underestimation make sense.

[greedo]

Marco Arment is the founder of Instapaper. He sold it after building it into one of the first successful iOS applications/services.

[ianamartin]

The founder hasn't said a damn thing about it.

The requirements are clear enough to figure out a solution in the last couple of years. What takes time is if you're trying to skate as close as you possibly can to the legal line and not go over it.

[mbesto]

> The founder has said that he underestimated the amount of work it was going to take.

Source?

Pinterest which owns Instapaper (2 years ago mind you!) has raised $1.47B to date. There's no legitimate excuse here.

[merinowool]

If there is so much ambiguity and interpretations what kind of manager would risk getting into doing such project if a risk of failure is equal to not doing it at all?

[dmix]

Courts are not black/white in interpretations of law. Demonstrating you put significant effort into being compliant is not for nothing. Plus you can't really figure it out until you try. Especially with something as complex as this and how the implications of the law will be different for different companies.

[merinowool]

I don't think that makes a difference, perhaps it depends on the country. Some EU countries are hostile towards entrepreneurs and wrong action or inaction would get the same treatment.