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Please respect our laws and privacy or don't do business with us. Stop sending us your data and money? I don’t leave the US to deal with EU customers. You send

Please respect our laws and privacy or don't do business with us. Stop sending us your data and money? I don’t leave the US to deal with EU customers. You send requests to my server in the US. If you’re unhappy with me, stop doing that. And it’s pretty rich to complain about companies not complying and leaving the market, while also using VPNs to use their service anyway. Apparently protecting your data isn’t as important as you say?

mrtksn 8y ago
I haven't been given an option not to make calls to your servers, those websites used to load 20 tracking scripts without asking me. Thanks to the GDPR now I will be able to stop sending requests. What's the problem? See, how browsers work is that they load this thing called HTML that describes the content and can load other stuff without asking me. Apologies if I accidentally sent any data or money, it wasn't my call. It was in the HTML that I loaded because I was offered to view a free article.
- ryanwaggoner 8y ago
  If it’s your right to use an adblocker under the theory that you should control what requests your browser makes from your device, then which requests it makes are also your responsibility. Regardless, whether you intended to send my server a request is your problem. The fact is that you did, and that hardly gives full control of my business to whatever legal jurisdictions claim you as their subject.
  - mrtksn 8y ago
    Well, as it turns out, it's your problem. Like, literally :) Anyway, don't be too upset about all this. The law is not banning you from collecting my data, you just need to be explicit and informative about it so that I can decide if I am going to send a request to your servers. I'm often disturbed by the mindset that people are some business' god given a right to exploitation. It's the other way around really, that is, if you can find a way to serve me or solve a problem of mine I might choose to do a business with you if I decide that the compensation you demand fair. If your business is unprofitable when you have to ask me for permission in plain English maybe it simply means that you don't have a profitable Business and you should consider doing something else. We don't see business people complaining that government regulations are hurting their organ harvesting businesses, right? People decided that they don't want other people to sell their kidneys on open markets, so that business doesn't exist. People at some point decided that they don't want to get cancer from Asbestos, regulations kicked in and the Asbestos businesses were destroyed. This time around people seem to be in control of their data, if that makes your business unprofitable or impossible do what others did: Something else.
    - ryanwaggoner 8y ago
      Well, as it turns out, it's your problem. Like, literally :) Only if the EU can enforce it, which they can’t. I don’t pay attention to laws from other countries that don’t apply to me and have no teeth, and I’ll ignore this one as well, until there’s some enforcement mechanism. At that point I’ll evaluate. I’d probably just block the EU though; not worth the hassle.
      - mrtksn 8y ago
        >not worth the hassle There you get it. If your business is not profitable when you respect the privacy preferences of your users you simply don't do business. It's not your god given right to violate user's privacy so that you can turn a profit. In other words, if you can't make a profit by selling 1$ burgers when you meet hygiene requirements just get out of the 1$ burger business. No need for hard feelings.
        ryanwaggoner 8y ago
        If your business is not profitable when you respect the privacy preferences of your users you simply don't do business. This is a false dichotomy: 1. Fully comply with the GDPR, no matter the cost, even if that's just legal and administrative because you're not actually doing anything in terms of data practices that would violate the law. 2. Go out of business, because you clearly are intending to do shady things that violate user privacy. if you can't make a profit by selling 1$ burgers when you meet hygiene requirements just get out of the 1$ burger business Perfect example. Say I run a burger shop that is perfectly clean and in compliance with all local laws, but the EU passes a law that says I need to fully audit all my food safety practices, publish them in a public place with their format, appoint a food safety rep in the EU, and comply with other vague requirements that they deem necessary, just in case an EU citizen visiting the US comes and eats at my shop. Now, if I ignore that, am I "breaking the law"? I guess so. Just like I might be breaking some Indian law by serving beef at all (hypothetical). But does it actually matter? Can the law be enforced? Should I care as a matter of civic duty? Very likely not. Worse, should the entire citizenry of the EU suddenly decide that my small town burger shop in Iowa clearly intends to feed every customer tainted beef and deserves their opprobrium and any fines that can possibly be levied by the EU, just because I didn't fully comply with their law? And if they do develop some enforcement mechanism to use against small town USA burger shop, how is it not my right to put up a sign that says "Sorry, EU customers, but please don't eat here, as I don't comply with your laws"? Is your argument seriously that I should comply with every law from every jurisdiction in the world, just because a customer from that jurisdiction might wander into my shop, even when I've expressly told them not to?

mrtksn 8y ago

I haven't been given an option not to make calls to your servers, those websites used to load 20 tracking scripts without asking me. Thanks to the GDPR now I will be able to stop sending requests. What's the problem? See, how browsers work is that they load this thing called HTML that describes the content and can load other stuff without asking me. Apologies if I accidentally sent any data or money, it wasn't my call. It was in the HTML that I loaded because I was offered to view a free article.

ryanwaggoner 8y ago
If it’s your right to use an adblocker under the theory that you should control what requests your browser makes from your device, then which requests it makes are also your responsibility. Regardless, whether you intended to send my server a request is your problem. The fact is that you did, and that hardly gives full control of my business to whatever legal jurisdictions claim you as their subject.
- mrtksn 8y ago
  Well, as it turns out, it's your problem. Like, literally :) Anyway, don't be too upset about all this. The law is not banning you from collecting my data, you just need to be explicit and informative about it so that I can decide if I am going to send a request to your servers. I'm often disturbed by the mindset that people are some business' god given a right to exploitation. It's the other way around really, that is, if you can find a way to serve me or solve a problem of mine I might choose to do a business with you if I decide that the compensation you demand fair. If your business is unprofitable when you have to ask me for permission in plain English maybe it simply means that you don't have a profitable Business and you should consider doing something else. We don't see business people complaining that government regulations are hurting their organ harvesting businesses, right? People decided that they don't want other people to sell their kidneys on open markets, so that business doesn't exist. People at some point decided that they don't want to get cancer from Asbestos, regulations kicked in and the Asbestos businesses were destroyed. This time around people seem to be in control of their data, if that makes your business unprofitable or impossible do what others did: Something else.
  - ryanwaggoner 8y ago
    Well, as it turns out, it's your problem. Like, literally :) Only if the EU can enforce it, which they can’t. I don’t pay attention to laws from other countries that don’t apply to me and have no teeth, and I’ll ignore this one as well, until there’s some enforcement mechanism. At that point I’ll evaluate. I’d probably just block the EU though; not worth the hassle.
    - mrtksn 8y ago
      >not worth the hassle There you get it. If your business is not profitable when you respect the privacy preferences of your users you simply don't do business. It's not your god given right to violate user's privacy so that you can turn a profit. In other words, if you can't make a profit by selling 1$ burgers when you meet hygiene requirements just get out of the 1$ burger business. No need for hard feelings.
      - ryanwaggoner 8y ago
        If your business is not profitable when you respect the privacy preferences of your users you simply don't do business. This is a false dichotomy: 1. Fully comply with the GDPR, no matter the cost, even if that's just legal and administrative because you're not actually doing anything in terms of data practices that would violate the law. 2. Go out of business, because you clearly are intending to do shady things that violate user privacy. if you can't make a profit by selling 1$ burgers when you meet hygiene requirements just get out of the 1$ burger business Perfect example. Say I run a burger shop that is perfectly clean and in compliance with all local laws, but the EU passes a law that says I need to fully audit all my food safety practices, publish them in a public place with their format, appoint a food safety rep in the EU, and comply with other vague requirements that they deem necessary, just in case an EU citizen visiting the US comes and eats at my shop. Now, if I ignore that, am I "breaking the law"? I guess so. Just like I might be breaking some Indian law by serving beef at all (hypothetical). But does it actually matter? Can the law be enforced? Should I care as a matter of civic duty? Very likely not. Worse, should the entire citizenry of the EU suddenly decide that my small town burger shop in Iowa clearly intends to feed every customer tainted beef and deserves their opprobrium and any fines that can possibly be levied by the EU, just because I didn't fully comply with their law? And if they do develop some enforcement mechanism to use against small town USA burger shop, how is it not my right to put up a sign that says "Sorry, EU customers, but please don't eat here, as I don't comply with your laws"? Is your argument seriously that I should comply with every law from every jurisdiction in the world, just because a customer from that jurisdiction might wander into my shop, even when I've expressly told them not to?