4 ms·

Even though they are not based out of EU and only operate in EU?

• jakobegger 9y ago
  Yes, the GDPR affects everyone who processes data of people in the EU, regardless of where they are based.
• rostigerpudel 9y ago
  When you operate a business somewhere, you have to observe the laws of the place you do business in. It does not matter where you are based. How someone gets a hold of you to enforce any action against you is a different matter. But Emirates kind of needs to come to the EU sometimes to do its business there.
• gambiting 9y ago
  If they sell to EU customers, then yes, they have to abide by the EU privacy regulations. Alternatively, they can set up a website just for EU customers or stop serving them altogether.
• hooeezit 9y ago
  Where they are based doesn't matter. If they are collecting revenues (taking payments) from EU clients, it applies. That includes generating ad revenues from EU based eyeballs. When it comes to on-ad-generating, free websites, it remains to be seen how bold EU regulators get. It'll be hard to penalize or prosecute such websites, and there are enough violations in the fat cats anyway, so I'm guessing those free websites will get a free pass for now (pun intended).
  • Zak 9y ago
    > That includes generating ad revenues from EU based eyeballs. That would be fairly hard to enforce against a company that doesn't have a physical or legal presence in the EU. In general, I'm disturbed by governments trying to enforce laws beyond their border just because their citizens are somehow involved by sending information over the internet. In some fields, it's a legal minefield just to comply with the rules of one country, much less several. This won't be a major difficulty for big players with high-paid lawyers and compliance departments, but it could easily kill startups, some before they're even launched.
    • distances 9y ago
      > In general, I'm disturbed by governments trying to enforce laws beyond their border just because their citizens are somehow involved by sending information over the internet. Isn't it simple enough to geoblock areas if European customers are somehow too hard to serve? > In some fields, it's a legal minefield just to comply with the rules of one country, much less several. This won't be a major difficulty for big players with high-paid lawyers and compliance departments, but it could easily kill startups, some before they're even launched. As the topic is GDPR: a privacy first approach is not rocket science. I'm sure any startup with even the remotest chance of success can follow the basic principles without undue complications.
      • Zak 9y ago
        Geoblocking is breaking the internet. While I agree that startups should be respectful of privacy, that doesn't change the principle at work here. Allowing countries to enforce laws against companies that don't have a physical or legal presence within their borders is a dangerous mechanism. Introducing a dangerous mechanism to enforce a good policy will result in that mechanism being used for a bad policy later on.
• nolok 9y ago
  They're taking money from EU customers, so yes the EU will enforce. They have assets (and even more, they want to land in EU airports) in the EU so yes the EU can force them to comply even if they don't want to.