3 ms·

> For internet-based companies, they can still continue to serve EU customers while keeping all servers in the US. That's not the case though. If they are serv

> For internet-based companies, they can still continue to serve EU customers while keeping all servers in the US. That's not the case though. If they are serving EU residents, they have to abide.

msumpter 9y ago
And I think the fact they have to respect the requests regardless of where the European individual is today (eg in the US at time of posting but still a French national). I think enough companies are aware they don’t want to blanket blacklist all requests from Europe along with the mix of EU visitors, it makes it impossible to decern what rules applies where. I wonder if we’ll start to see US based users claim they are European to attempt to remove references, how would a tech company decern between legit and illegit requests (asking for proof of ID creates yet another potential storage of EU data). I suspect most companies won’t vet the requests and just comply or risk the potential huge fines
- icebraining 9y ago
  they have to respect the requests regardless of where the European individual is today That's not the case, as far as I understand it; the GDPR protects people in the EU, not EU citizens wherever they are. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/gdpr-does-apply-eu-citizens-gregory-albertyn/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/gdpr-does-apply-eu-citizens-g...
singron 9y ago
I think the question being asked is why dont they just break EU law if they dont have a physical presence there (i.e. their assets can't be siezed, and they can't be arrested).
- SahAssar 9y ago
  Because willfully breaking the law in the worlds second largest economy generally isn't considered "good business"?
- Sylos 9y ago
  Because their country of residence only has a limited interest in protecting them at the cost of the country's relationship with the EU. Especially if the EU ruling is credible. Also, the EU might block them from the market completely.
  - dheera 9y ago
    How would the EU block them? In a hypothetical scenario where, say, Google pulls out, would EU dare block google.com? Given Google's revenue model is largely based on ad impressions, as long as they don't set up a firewall, Google gets all the business they need.
    - SahAssar 9y ago
      A EU ruling could say that doing business with googles ad serving platform was against EU law, which would probably reduce ad buyers in EU by at least 50% (probably a lot more). If you think that you can run a global business and skirt the laws of the second largest economy and still make a legitimate profit within that economy... Well, then you need to think again. On the other hand, if google thinks that they can do without the EU market they are free to block all EU citizens from both their services and their ad serving platforms.
    - Sylos 9y ago
      Those ad impressions only happen when the ads are loaded from Google's server. If routing to all Google servers gets blocked, those ads won't load anymore either. Then webpage owners won't make money anymore off of having Google ads, so they'd replace them with different ads and you'd have the most flourishing ad industry in the EU within a few months. But even just blocking access to google.com/.fr/.de/etc. would hurt Google quite a bit. Companies pay a lot of money to bend the truth and have themselves appear as the top result. As far as I'm aware, that still is the main source of income for Google. Would they dare it? If pulling out means that Google disregards, therefore breaks EU law, I do think so. That would be entirely in the hands of the jurisdiction, which is relatively strong here. Which is to say, they generally don't need to give too much of a fuck about the effects of their doing. They just look at the laws, look at the facts and then make rulings out of those.

> For internet-based companies, they can still continue to serve EU customers while keeping all servers in the US. That's not the case though. If they are serving EU residents, they have to abide.

msumpter 9y ago

And I think the fact they have to respect the requests regardless of where the European individual is today (eg in the US at time of posting but still a French national). I think enough companies are aware they don’t want to blanket blacklist all requests from Europe along with the mix of EU visitors, it makes it impossible to decern what rules applies where. I wonder if we’ll start to see US based users claim they are European to attempt to remove references, how would a tech company decern between legit and illegit requests (asking for proof of ID creates yet another potential storage of EU data). I suspect most companies won’t vet the requests and just comply or risk the potential huge fines

icebraining 9y ago
they have to respect the requests regardless of where the European individual is today That's not the case, as far as I understand it; the GDPR protects people in the EU, not EU citizens wherever they are. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/gdpr-does-apply-eu-citizens-gregory-albertyn/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/gdpr-does-apply-eu-citizens-g...

singron 9y ago

I think the question being asked is why dont they just break EU law if they dont have a physical presence there (i.e. their assets can't be siezed, and they can't be arrested).

SahAssar 9y ago
Because willfully breaking the law in the worlds second largest economy generally isn't considered "good business"?
Sylos 9y ago
Because their country of residence only has a limited interest in protecting them at the cost of the country's relationship with the EU. Especially if the EU ruling is credible. Also, the EU might block them from the market completely.
- dheera 9y ago
  How would the EU block them? In a hypothetical scenario where, say, Google pulls out, would EU dare block google.com? Given Google's revenue model is largely based on ad impressions, as long as they don't set up a firewall, Google gets all the business they need.
  - SahAssar 9y ago
    A EU ruling could say that doing business with googles ad serving platform was against EU law, which would probably reduce ad buyers in EU by at least 50% (probably a lot more). If you think that you can run a global business and skirt the laws of the second largest economy and still make a legitimate profit within that economy... Well, then you need to think again. On the other hand, if google thinks that they can do without the EU market they are free to block all EU citizens from both their services and their ad serving platforms.
  - Sylos 9y ago
    Those ad impressions only happen when the ads are loaded from Google's server. If routing to all Google servers gets blocked, those ads won't load anymore either. Then webpage owners won't make money anymore off of having Google ads, so they'd replace them with different ads and you'd have the most flourishing ad industry in the EU within a few months. But even just blocking access to google.com/.fr/.de/etc. would hurt Google quite a bit. Companies pay a lot of money to bend the truth and have themselves appear as the top result. As far as I'm aware, that still is the main source of income for Google. Would they dare it? If pulling out means that Google disregards, therefore breaks EU law, I do think so. That would be entirely in the hands of the jurisdiction, which is relatively strong here. Which is to say, they generally don't need to give too much of a fuck about the effects of their doing. They just look at the laws, look at the facts and then make rulings out of those.