Re:GDPR penalty for passing on of IP address to Google by us...
by dorfsmay on Sunday January 30, 2022 @07:55AM
(#30136755)
A lot of websites won't serve addresses from Germany.
I've seen companies doing that with just the GDPR cookie warning, it wasn't worth rewriting code and annoy non-EU people with the warning so the detect IP address and redirect to a page saying they don't serve that region.
Let's be honest, what have we gain from the cookie warning?
Re:GDPR penalty for passing on of IP address to Google by us...
by janoc on Monday January 31, 2022 @03:52AM
(#30145932)
That is a minority and mostly only US-centric sites that are otherwise chock full of advertising/tracking technology - exactly what was GDPR meant to deal with.
However, GDPR and this type of ruling has EU-wide impact because of the single market (e.g. a French website can and does server also German customers). Businesses (especially the ones from the EU) can't afford to not comply or to not serve customers within the EU.
That is where the problem is.
The court isn't ruling this sort of technology en bloc but says in its ruling that it is a problem because the user didn't consent to his personal data (IP address) being given to a third party (Google in this case).
Personally I have mixed feelings about this ruling too because this sort of technical solution is widespread and an army of GDPR vigilantes has the potential to cripple large portions of the web by filing similar suits. Or we won't be able to access websites without having to go through entire multi-page EULAs and consent forms for every and all kinds of similar 3rdparty technology embedding.
Law is a blunt tool and will have unintended consequences, unfortunately :(