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Comment by thinkulum | Hacker News Reader

The only thing is that I'm running the site myself. That's why I was thinking of moving the content to a blog host that would manage the back end for me. But maybe even moderating the comments myself would make me the processor or controller. If every blogger on Tumblr or wherever is subject to GDPR that way, wow is the web in trouble.

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There's a big difference between bloggers operating their own infrastructure (like me) and bloggers that use some platform. The platform operators would have to make sure their platform is compliant, so the bloggers that do not operate infrastructure will be covered.

That leaves people like me (and you, apparently), I solve the problem in the simplest way: no logs, no analytics, no comments on my site.

Yeah, I've been thinking about closing the comments. I don't get many anyway, but the people who do comment might care that they're gone.

I'll be curious to see whether GDPR results in a web with fewer features, or maybe features that don't work as well. I tried DuckDuckGo, for example, but I dropped it quickly because Google's results are so much better. I actually like that it takes my previous searches into consideration.

There definitely is a tension between functionality and privacy. The problem is that companies that could offer certain functionality without invading people's privacy have made a habit of grabbing what they can. The number of apps on mobile phones for instance that require access to your location and your contacts is staggering. Slowly people are wising up to the impact this has, I think for many people retargeted ads was their first 'aha' moment.

Convenience and privacy will always be at odds. If the largest excesses are taken care of then this will already have been worth it.

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