On the other hand it’s pretty clear the actions of more than a few have gotten GDPR to where it is.
My takeaway at the moment is something along the lines of this is why we can’t have nice things.
Now we face regulation because, as it turns out, people care about how we use their data and how we influence them. Not exactly shocking that we ended up here.
The funny thing is that I generally wish companies did more with my user data. Why don't events sites do a better job just showing me events it thinks I'll like -- when was the last time I showed any interest in country music? I think customization is a huge value.
It's not "bitter HN users". It's bitter European citizens. No wonder that it's mostly American companies who have the most trouble complying with it.
That was exactly the position of too many companies: pass whatever law, I don't care.
Well. It has gone on for too long, so, hopefully, now companies will start to care.
> If you don’t want to do business with me because I’m not compliant, don’t send me server requests, data, or money.
The EU is 500 million people. It looks to me that it's you who doesn't want to do business just because you think that other countries' laws and other countries' rights are bullshit and you don't care about them.
I say, good riddance.
I’m hoping that over the coming weeks and months the enforcement of GDPR and various court cases will add clarity and allow the development of improved guidelines for becoming compliant. If a random SaaS company that users emails for logins and communication with active customers could look at a simple 5 point check list which they could check though in a day then things would be better for everyone.
Less burden for customers, wider services for users, and those firms that can see they could make a few small changes to become compliant would be more incentivised to do so.
What I do know is that massive numbers of services like yours are missusing, mishandling, or lossing my data every year. I'm not OK with that.
But I won't jump through hoops to reassure you. The cost is too high for too little benefit.
Two things could swing this in another direction:
1. The EU figures out how to levy fines or force compliance against small businesses in other countries.
2. The revenue loss from EU users and possibly others is so large that the benefits once again outweigh the costs.
Very skeptical on both counts.
Until then, the GDPR goes on a large pile of perhaps well-meaning laws passed by foreign governments that don't apply to me and that I can safely ignore.
Having grown up in Europe I'm much more sensitive to privacy concerns than most Americans, but it's not proper to assume that anyone who just blocks European visitors is up to something nefarious. It just doesn't make business sense for everyone to comply.
User tracking is not really why we don't have nice things, look at the success of moviepass even after they publicly admitted what they were tracking. People want part of the spoils which is exactly the purpose of GDPR.
No, if you knew how Europeans think, you'd realise that this is really just about securing privacy. Most of the regulators are really focussed on ensuring compliance, not levying fines.
Correct me if I am wrong. But that just proves my point rather than yours, correct?
They are losing so much from ppl using not because ppl are quitting it due to privacy concerns.
The EU isn't the US. This kind of misplaced pride is not a part of the culture in most of Europe.