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Comment by _Codemonkeyism | Hacker News Reader

Many European countries are the same, e.g. governments made sure GDPR doesn't apply to them. For example in Germany government sells data.

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This is slightly off-topic, but i found it rather funny the dutch tax office is not GDPR-compliant. https://tweakers.net/nieuws/151770/belastingdienst-voldoet-n... (article in Dutch)

What data are you referring to? Is it comparable to this personal data?

In Germany, you are required to be registered where you live. The authority collecting this data (Einwohnermeldeamt) is allowed to reveal parts of this data (addresses) to requesting parties for a fee and under some restricting circumstances (you can opt out, see https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bmg/__44.html).

In the UK we have the open electoral roll, which you can opt out of.

Worse still, companies such as Experian and Equifax have open access to the full register.

There's multiple levels of data transfer at play:

1. Melderegisterauskunft: everyone can ask at the local city government for the current address of a specific person. This isn't free though, it costs (I believe) something about 10-20€ per request.

2. Political parties can get information on electorate: https://www.service-bw.de/leistung/-/sbw/Melderegisterauskun...

3. The GEZ (funding administrators for public television) automatically get all data of persons whenever they move

4. Military gets personal data automatically (we don't have compulsory service anymore, though)

EU also has a Government DPR, very much like General DPR.

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