4 ms·

The practice you're alluding to is currently restricted to one surprisingly specific segment, which I'll term the 'hillbilly newspaper'. Seriously: I do not rem

The practice you're alluding to is currently restricted to one surprisingly specific segment, which I'll term the 'hillbilly newspaper'. Seriously: I do not remember ever seeing that message, except when clicking a link to some small-town newspaper in a non-coastal US state. But among these newspapers, the rate is somewhere above 50 %. EU visitors are obviously a small fraction of their traffic, which allows them to do this. But there are millions of other websites where that's true. And yet, none of them feel the need to implement geoblocking. I just tried Four Seasons Total Landscaping, and it works fine. So there's something else going on. To cut to the chase, it's publishers being ideological and idiotic: they are trying to make some point about EU imperialism and US sovereignty, by pretending that the EU has powers it doesn't have.

ben_w 6y ago
> So there's something else going on. To cut to the chase, it's publishers being ideological and idiotic: they are trying to make some point about EU imperialism and US sovereignty, by pretending that the EU has powers it doesn't have. Could be, but another explanation is that the newspapers have heard of GDPR and don’t understand it (detailed legalese that they can skip by not serving EU citizens, I can’t really blame them), while Four Seasons Total Landscaping hasn’t even heard of it (weird foreign thing about tech — who cares? We sell spades, not computers!)
jokethrowaway 6y ago
They have a point, the eu is forcing themselves between service providers and citizens. As a European citizen, I don't want this. It also costs money to implement GDPR
- ccmcarey 6y ago
  > the eu is forcing themselves between service providers and citizens Yes, that's what regulations do, and it is for the _benefit_ of the citizens.
  - asdfasgasdgasdg 6y ago
    > Yes, that's what regulations do, and it is for the _benefit_ of the citizens. Purportedly for the benefit of citizens. Whether citizens in actual fact benefit from any given regulation is specific to the given regulation and the given citizen's preferences.
- IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago
  The law doesn't apply to them.
  - pestaa 6y ago
    The law applies to any service provided to any EU citizen, even abroad. (That's why geofencing does not make GDPR 'go away'.)
    - yorwba 6y ago
      The law applies to any service targeted at EU citizens. It does not apply to services that any EU citizen happens to be using even though they're primarily intended for citizens of other countries. A "local" Bavarian news site hosted in the US would be in scope, but a local Nebraskan news site hosted in the US wouldn't. Edit: Recital 23: Applicable to processors not established in the Union if data subjects within the Union are targeted: https://gdpr.eu/Recital-23-Applicable-to-processors-not-established-in-the-Union-if-data-subjects-within-the-Union-are-targeted https://gdpr.eu/Recital-23-Applicable-to-processors-not-esta... In order to determine whether such a controller or processor is offering goods or services to data subjects who are in the Union, it should be ascertained whether it is apparent that the controller or processor envisages offering services to data subjects in one or more Member States in the Union. Whereas the mere accessibility of the controller’s, processor’s or an intermediary’s website in the Union, of an email address or of other contact details, or the use of a language generally used in the third country where the controller is established, is insufficient to ascertain such intention, factors such as the use of a language or a currency generally used in one or more Member States with the possibility of ordering goods and services in that other language, or the mentioning of customers or users who are in the Union, may make it apparent that the controller envisages offering goods or services to data subjects in the Union.
      - pestaa 6y ago
        Thank you, that is an important distinction I did not know about. So after all geofencing is a sufficient signal to avoid falling under GDPR, unless there are other explicit ways to do business with them from the EU. For example, if a web store blocks my IP, but I can place an order with an EU country address through a VPN, they are nonetheless obligated to process my data according to EU regulations. Is this a correct interpretation?
- pestaa 6y ago
  It costs money to build protections for customer data now? Oh I'm sure the service providers took information security very seriously as they proclaimed to. In which case, GDPR is only a legal framework they had no trouble (and serious expenses) to adhere to.
- Bayart 6y ago
  GDPR is pretty cheap if treating people as merchandise isn't part of your economics.

ben_w 6y ago

> So there's something else going on. To cut to the chase, it's publishers being ideological and idiotic: they are trying to make some point about EU imperialism and US sovereignty, by pretending that the EU has powers it doesn't have. Could be, but another explanation is that the newspapers have heard of GDPR and don’t understand it (detailed legalese that they can skip by not serving EU citizens, I can’t really blame them), while Four Seasons Total Landscaping hasn’t even heard of it (weird foreign thing about tech — who cares? We sell spades, not computers!)

jokethrowaway 6y ago

They have a point, the eu is forcing themselves between service providers and citizens. As a European citizen, I don't want this. It also costs money to implement GDPR

ccmcarey 6y ago
> the eu is forcing themselves between service providers and citizens Yes, that's what regulations do, and it is for the _benefit_ of the citizens.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 6y ago
  > Yes, that's what regulations do, and it is for the _benefit_ of the citizens. Purportedly for the benefit of citizens. Whether citizens in actual fact benefit from any given regulation is specific to the given regulation and the given citizen's preferences.
IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago
The law doesn't apply to them.
- pestaa 6y ago
  The law applies to any service provided to any EU citizen, even abroad. (That's why geofencing does not make GDPR 'go away'.)
  - yorwba 6y ago
    The law applies to any service targeted at EU citizens. It does not apply to services that any EU citizen happens to be using even though they're primarily intended for citizens of other countries. A "local" Bavarian news site hosted in the US would be in scope, but a local Nebraskan news site hosted in the US wouldn't. Edit: Recital 23: Applicable to processors not established in the Union if data subjects within the Union are targeted: https://gdpr.eu/Recital-23-Applicable-to-processors-not-established-in-the-Union-if-data-subjects-within-the-Union-are-targeted https://gdpr.eu/Recital-23-Applicable-to-processors-not-esta... In order to determine whether such a controller or processor is offering goods or services to data subjects who are in the Union, it should be ascertained whether it is apparent that the controller or processor envisages offering services to data subjects in one or more Member States in the Union. Whereas the mere accessibility of the controller’s, processor’s or an intermediary’s website in the Union, of an email address or of other contact details, or the use of a language generally used in the third country where the controller is established, is insufficient to ascertain such intention, factors such as the use of a language or a currency generally used in one or more Member States with the possibility of ordering goods and services in that other language, or the mentioning of customers or users who are in the Union, may make it apparent that the controller envisages offering goods or services to data subjects in the Union.
    - pestaa 6y ago
      Thank you, that is an important distinction I did not know about. So after all geofencing is a sufficient signal to avoid falling under GDPR, unless there are other explicit ways to do business with them from the EU. For example, if a web store blocks my IP, but I can place an order with an EU country address through a VPN, they are nonetheless obligated to process my data according to EU regulations. Is this a correct interpretation?
pestaa 6y ago
It costs money to build protections for customer data now? Oh I'm sure the service providers took information security very seriously as they proclaimed to. In which case, GDPR is only a legal framework they had no trouble (and serious expenses) to adhere to.
Bayart 6y ago
GDPR is pretty cheap if treating people as merchandise isn't part of your economics.