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It's absolutely not a small cost. It cost the last startup I worked for around two weeks of development time, plus in many cases it prevents us (or adds massive
by kypro 8y ago
It's absolutely not a small cost. It cost the last startup I worked for around two weeks of development time, plus in many cases it prevents us (or adds massive restrictions) on collecting contact information from leads.
It has certainly affected the bottom line of companies like Facebook and Google, but they can afford to take the hit, not all startups can.
I'm not really disagree that companies "should" do it. But I'd argue one of the many reasons we have a shortage of big tech in the EU is excessive regulation restricting our ability to scale.
- Dylan16807 8y agoI'm not sure how to react to you implying that it hurts small companies more than big companies, and that it's an impediment to scaling.
- Nasrudith 8y agoThose two aren't mutually exclusive or contradictory - oak trees sprout from acorns. If their growth is stunted then they won't scale.
- Dylan16807 8y agoStopping something before it even tries to scale is different from making scaling itself hard, and the comment is implying the latter.
- wlll 8y agoI'll take my data being protected over your ability to scale any day, and remember, if a US company wants to do business with EU citizens they still need to comply.
- kypro 8y agoBut unlike EU startups, US startups have the advantage of only having to to comply with EU regulation when they're at scale and profitable. I actually like GDPR and would love it if it was made law worldwide, but right now that's not the case and with being EU only it comes at the cost of EU tech. And if the EU wishes to remain economically competitive with the US in the coming decades we're going to need tech and GDPR is yet another hurdle preventing us from achieve this. Again, I'm not really arguing what should be, but from a purely pragmatic perspective I'd argue tech regulation isn't good for the already struggling economy of the EU.
- martin_a 8y agoBeing GDPR compliant right from the start should be seen as an advantage over competitors. GDPR can really be reduced to "privacy by design" and "privacy by default". If your business struggles with those two principles it's a business you'll probably not need.
- icebraining 8y agoThe question is whether those costs were just bureaucracy, or just you actually having to spend the time to be responsible with user data. In my experience, it's 90% the latter.
- martin_a 8y agoThis is exactly what I love so much about the GDPR. It hurts and sets up barriers when you want to collect data which is not needed for fulfilling the purposes of "doing your business". Nobody keeps you from saving contact information and communicating it in that way. But collecting all kinds of data to build profiles and get on my nerves, because I wanted to test your software is getting more and more complicated. And that's good for (end) users privacy.
- lagadu 8y agoSo your old company didn't properly care about how they handled my private data and the law made them care? Should we cry at how the evil EU made them actually have to properly handle my private data? That line alone is a good showcase of why GDPR is great.
- 908087 8y ago"My back alley butcher shop startup had to spend two weeks developing new methods because of unfair health regulations!"
- Hamuko 8y ago>It cost the last startup I worked for around two weeks of development time You spent two weeks solving technical debt, which you had ignored because no one was forcing you to actually play nice with people's data and it was convenient to you to do.