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Comment by Jensson | Hacker News Reader

Are the logs permanent? If not then GDPR doesn't cover it. Can you use the logs to identify users and their behaviour? If not GDPR doesn't cover it.

If you keep permanent logs with information about users, then yeah that is a problem. But it should be a problem, that is a big potential security/privacy issue.

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This is a student run newspaper. They probably don’t employ a dedicated IT professional nor a legal professional to help them understand what GDPR requires of them. It’s easy to say “compliance with GDPR is so easy” when you’ve taken the time to understand what it requires—why should an American student newspaper have to take the time to learn other countries’ laws? Blocking access is easier especially considering the probability of the web site appealing to an international audience.

"...why should an American student newspaper have to take the time to learn other countries’ laws?".

Students! Learning! (Continents!).

> Students! Learning! (Continents!).

I’m not sure how I’m supposed to parse this. Maybe the “continents” is meant to be a correction from “countries’ laws”, but that would be a mistake because the EU isn’t a continent but rather a union of sovereign nations, and “countries’” is plural possessive so the original wording is correct.

Also a good lesson for students: avoid trouble when it is easy to do so.

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