News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloudflare Workers. Parent comment

Re:GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloud... by glibgil on Friday May 25, 2018 @03:46PM (#17157243)
Yes, this is the way the law, prosecution and judgement works. If you violate GDPR and the EU prosecutes you and you don't even show up to court and there is judgement against you and you are fined, the EU can try to get paid from your bank. That's how law, prosecution and judgement work in America too. How else would it work? Why would anyone obey any regulation or ever show up to court otherwise?

That being said, the starting point shouldn't be, "there's no need to imagine that I'm violating GDPR. I only serve Americans". The starting point should be, "I had better imagine that I might be violating GDPR even though I only intend to serve Americans. Are there things I haven't considered? Are there resources I should seek out? As a service provider of some kind, hadn't I better spend a day or two imagining the ways I might run into trouble and plan to avoid it?"

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloud... by icebraining on Friday May 25, 2018 @04:23PM (#17157582)
Playing Devil's advocate, there are 193 countries in the UN; is it reasonable to ask site owners to keep abreast of the Internet laws passed in each one, and spend a couple of days for each, even if you just serve your compatriots?

I'm biased for the GDPR, since I think every site should follow its principles regardless of legal obligation, but I don't think the rationale you're proposing is scalable.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloud... by chernobogdan on Friday May 25, 2018 @05:56PM (#17158345)
Hello mere mortals,

Its your favorite dictator, the leader of Crazystan and from 29th of May 2018 I ask that from that date, for every site accessed by citizens of my country I require the hosting company to send one employee to be sacrificed to our mighty gods.

Failure to comply will attract a fine of 50 Gazillion dollars.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloud... by vbezhenar on Friday May 25, 2018 @04:34PM (#17157699)
Laws are made with physical borders in mind. Digital world doesn't have those borders. But it seems that politicians are expecting those borders to work.

I'm not even sure about sane way to map IP address to country. There are some geolocation services, but I doubt that they are 100% precise and probably paid. Also if I'm using geolocation service passing IP of the incoming request, does that mean that I'm already violated someone's privacy? This is weird.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloud... by mirimir on Friday May 25, 2018 @05:14PM (#17158054)
With IPv4 stretched thin, there's a lot of international trade, even of small blocks. Also, multihomed servers can announce IPv4 from one ASN on another ASN, given permission. Anyway, it's nontrivial to really know where an IPv4 is located.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloud... by guelo on Friday May 25, 2018 @05:32PM (#17158178)
The block is to pacify the lawyers, it doesn't really matter if it's effective.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:GDPR for lazy people: Block all European users with Cloud... by icebraining on Friday May 25, 2018 @05:54PM (#17158335)
It should be noted that I'm talking about the previous poster's proposal. The GDPR doesn't demand that; it specifically says that simply being available in the EU does not automatically make it fall under the regulation.
[ Parent | on HN ]