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> Liability for what? You're not going to get sued. Yes, this is the most confusing thing - a lot of posters talk about "being sued because of GDPR" but that's

by glogla 9y ago

> Liability for what? You're not going to get sued. Yes, this is the most confusing thing - a lot of posters talk about "being sued because of GDPR" but that's not how it works. And it's always people with the same arguments - small companies, getting sued, crazy money for lawyers, etc. If I was paranoid, I would think this is some kind of organized campaign to spread FUD and have as many people be against GDPR as possible, perhaps as a way to make sure something similar won't happen in the US. It's probably just misinformed people.

craigsmansion 9y ago
> It's probably just misinformed people. Probably. There seems to be a real disconnect between US and EU perception of legal and business landscapes here, with the US worrying about the EU legislation more than those based in the EU, who would be far more affected by it (after all, they can't "shut out" Europe).
Silhouette 9y ago
And it's always people with the same arguments - small companies, getting sued, crazy money for lawyers, etc. One of those things is not like the others. I have no idea where the meme about exploitative lawyers looking for minor non-compliance came from, because the primary means of enforcement under the GDPR is regulatory action. The whole strategy of threatening legal action to prompt a profitable out of court settlement is much less viable under typical EU legal systems than in the US anyway. However, GDPR definitely can cause significant compliance overheads for small organisations, including those who have done nothing wrong. The official guidance is still terrible, and just the uncertainty around several key points is a problem for reasons we've previously discussed at length on HN. Trusting in regulators to do the right thing is also a risky strategy. I write this as someone whose business really did receive a crippling demand for monies never owed direct from an EU government tax office after the VAT changes, with very scary accompanying threats and impossibly short timescales to respond, and there were many thousands of other small businesses similarly attacked just in the incidents I'm personally aware of. From a pragmatic point of view, the regulator in my country is well known to be under-funded and under-staffed, but even that doesn't necessarily help because as with other issues within their remit, it makes smaller organisations easier targets than those with big legal departments to fight back.

by glogla 9y ago

craigsmansion 9y ago

> It's probably just misinformed people. Probably. There seems to be a real disconnect between US and EU perception of legal and business landscapes here, with the US worrying about the EU legislation more than those based in the EU, who would be far more affected by it (after all, they can't "shut out" Europe).

Silhouette 9y ago

And it's always people with the same arguments - small companies, getting sued, crazy money for lawyers, etc. One of those things is not like the others. I have no idea where the meme about exploitative lawyers looking for minor non-compliance came from, because the primary means of enforcement under the GDPR is regulatory action. The whole strategy of threatening legal action to prompt a profitable out of court settlement is much less viable under typical EU legal systems than in the US anyway. However, GDPR definitely can cause significant compliance overheads for small organisations, including those who have done nothing wrong. The official guidance is still terrible, and just the uncertainty around several key points is a problem for reasons we've previously discussed at length on HN. Trusting in regulators to do the right thing is also a risky strategy. I write this as someone whose business really did receive a crippling demand for monies never owed direct from an EU government tax office after the VAT changes, with very scary accompanying threats and impossibly short timescales to respond, and there were many thousands of other small businesses similarly attacked just in the incidents I'm personally aware of. From a pragmatic point of view, the regulator in my country is well known to be under-funded and under-staffed, but even that doesn't necessarily help because as with other issues within their remit, it makes smaller organisations easier targets than those with big legal departments to fight back.