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Re:Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is by paulddraper on Sunday April 08, 2018 @02:24PM (#16787456)
Noob question How is that person-identitifying information?

Seems like it's machine-identifying information. You can't tie it to a real-world name and email (which the top voted comment claims is the essence of GDPR).

Re:Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is by molf on Sunday April 08, 2018 @03:20PM (#16787777)
GDPR does not concern itself only with person-identitifying information, it concerns itself with "personal data" which is defined as "any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person". [1]

The GDPR definition of personal data is VERY broad, and it explicitly includes things like:

* name, email, date of birth, etc (probably no surprise here)

* any user behaviour (what you look at, what you click on)

* uploaded content (what you write, your uploaded avatar etc)

* ip addresses, device ids

* beliefs, ethnicity, sexuality, health data (additional restrictions apply here)

* biometric data, genetic data (additional restrictions apply here)

[1] https://gdpr-info.eu/art-4-gdpr/

Re:Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is by mixedbit on Sunday April 08, 2018 @02:32PM (#16787508)
You can tie such visit to a real person. For example, if this is a Facebook user, and your site includes resources from facebook.com, Facebook will know exactly which real person visited your site, and the user did not give you consent to share such info with Facebook.
Re:Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is by paulddraper on Sunday April 08, 2018 @02:59PM (#16787660)
Isn't that in Facebook's court though?

They acquired your name, birthdate, address, etc. And they didn't aquire it through your website.

Calling IP address or screen size "person" identifying information seems a stretch to me.

Re:Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is by zaarn on Monday April 09, 2018 @08:37AM (#16792441)
If you embed a Facebook like button and Facebook loads their scripts into YOUR site then it is YOUR responsibility to make sure Facebook is compliant with the law.

The same goes for ad networks. YOU are responsible for making sure the ad network is compliant. If you include a non-GDPR complaint ad network script on your site and somebody complaints, then you are in for it because you were ultimately responsible for that network being able to track the user on YOUR webpage.

If Facebook is GDPR compliant and has consent from the user then you are in the clear. If Facebook is not GDPR compliant and tracking people who aren't users then a EU or local court will set up a campfire under their asses (German courts already have).

IP addresses are definitely personal data (PII and Personal Data are different, the GDPR defines and cares only about the later, PII is mostly an US term used interchangeably with PD on the internet) German and EU courts have ruled that since an IP can be traced back to a person, it's personal data. Unless you have a good reason to log it (hint: firewall and webserver logs) then you need consent for it.

Re:Publishers Haven't Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is by PeterStuer on Monday April 09, 2018 @08:28AM (#16792377)
No, since you are the controller of your site hosting the Facebook component. Facebook is in that workflow 'merely' a data-processor. Advertising companies have lobbied long and hard to drive an interpretation of the GDPR in which they would be considered a 'controller', resulting in 'nothing changes for the business, realy'. AFAIK, they (thankfully, from a privacy perspective) failed.

It realy is very much like environmental regulation. Before things like the EPA etc. came to be, it was a toxic 'everything goes' type of environment. Transition to a regime where businesses are held to data responsibility might be painful at first, but ultimately hugely beneficial to all.