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This is the exact quote, folks. No games!
It's anything but a happy General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) day for several major U.S. news organizations as their websites are temporarily blocked in Europe as a new data privacy law goes into effect today.
Websites such as the LA Times, NY Daily News and Chicago Tribune are all temporarily blocked this morning, saying their content is unavailable in most European countries.
Anyone trying to access the sites, which also include those owned by Tronc and Lee Enterprises (examples include Orlando Sentinel [Tronc], Arizona Daily Sun and the St. Louis Dispatch [Lee Entperises]) see a message explaining that the website is working with European authorities on trying to get access back as quickly as possible.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @01:32AM (21 children)
I am located in Europe. And I see the block. But IT'S DONE BY THE COMPANY !
Yes, you read that right. The company itself has put a geoblock on (presumably) all of its European readers across all of its outlets. Voluntarily, I must add, because the *only* enforcement provided by the GPDR consists of fines of varying volume against violators. Negligible for first offenders willing to fix their mistakes, very high for wanton repeat offenders.
So why is a news corp shutting out 300million potential readers, give or take a few Americans abroad?
There are various explanations but they are all coming down to the same thing: Tronc Inc., the holding of all the news outlets mentioned, positively *HATES* the GPDR. So either they are waging their own, petty war of lies for political reasons of a third party who wants the GPDR smeared (owners? politicians? interest groups?). Which I would, personally, not put beyond a US "news" organization, despite it looking like a conspiracy theory.
Or it just means that they are afraid of running afoul of the GPDR, or already know that they are (most likely because they have been contacted about "How are you proposing to fix your known violations?") and see the block as the easiest way out.
Both options should give y'all a big pause about what these guys are presumably doing, or intent on doing, or purposefully refusing to refrain from doing, with your personalized data, how blatantly they are doing it, and how egregiously they are doing it.
And in all those cases: it's working! Finally there's a law about data protection that people simply *dare* not ignore! Unlike all the others before it, this one is *working*. Admittedly I would rather Tronc started protecting reader data as it behooves anyone collecting such data. But if they refuse this data protection, and opt to be (stay?) data-whoring assholes, then its totally OK for them to get lost.
Thank you, European Commision and Parliament, thank you for once! Great job!
(no sarcasm here, I actually mean it)
Oh, and fuck you Tronc! I agree with the other poster, nothing of value was lost.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday May 29 2018, @02:16AM (17 children)
As a US admin, I hate the GDPR. For my personal dealings, I plan on ignoring it. I'm not an EU subject, so they can go fuck themselves thinking they can pass laws telling me what I can do in the US.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @02:34AM (12 children)
I find it very telling, your dislike of user data protection. And typical of the US.
Sure, go ahead, ignore the GPDR, you're free to. But don't come to Europe, or do business here, after data-raping ours and then ignoring a first polite request to stop, because the *then* ensuing fine *will* be collected!
PS: may I remind you of the US trying to dictate to European companies that they are not allowed to do business with Cuba? Pot, meet kettle ...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday May 29 2018, @06:07AM (10 children)
Fun talking out of your ass, is it? Next time do try to remember who you're talking to. Even a complete twit should not need me to spell out that what I object to is the government getting involved where it does not belong and is not competent. And then trying to impose their will on people not subject to their rule.
Remind me of anything you like but pick a less shitty example. You need an actual law with actual punishment for acts carried out on your own soil that we decided we'd go ahead and enforce on the entire world. Diplomatic wheeling and dealing is not remotely similar. If you find one, I'll happily say whoever proposed it was suffering from a severe STFU deficiency.
As for going to Europe, I have no desire. You have nothing I want and very many things I detest.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @06:23AM (3 children)
Touched a nerve there?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday May 29 2018, @02:56PM (2 children)
Not particularly, no. That's just how I speak when confronted by base stupidity.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @07:09PM (1 child)
dude you're smart but this was disappointing
tell us why you dont like it
the fact that so many news organizations voluntarily blocked readership tells me that... their busines model is predicated on privacy violation of some kind. otherwise they wouldnt have a problem.
i have a problem with privacy violations. i have a problem with companies doing it and hiding behind a eula, or everyone does it so we can too, or any of that.
but you havent really said why you are for it. or if you aren't for privacy violations, what about the gpdr's effects are bothering you as an admin. yes it makes extra work, but i would expect it is work that was just put off until now.
sort of like https on the website and asking for and shredding your carbon copies in the past... or choosing to not fill in the personal interest boxes on the warranty card you would mail in way back in the 90s and prior to then.
the same thing is important now--even more so now: the less info leakage the better
but you havent said why privacy is such an inconvenience. never mind europe or america. whats the dig? too much extra work i guess sucks but that means your employers may not have had their customers best interests in mind, if it is irritating to have to clean up after the mess.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 30 2018, @01:26PM
I already did [soylentnews.org]. It's massive government overreach and it's tech policy being made by unqualified buffoons.
There's been a story in the queue waiting for notes, changes, and sign-off by management about SN and the GDPR for a couple weeks now. The cliff notes version is that the GDPR does not apply to us by its own criteria (the entire issue of the EU having the authority to enforce it on US sites in the first place aside) but it did make us want to have the privacy discussion and get whatever changes we as a community decide are necessary made.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @06:32AM (1 child)
Read up on the Sklyarov incident, I'm too lazy to dig up a source for you. Very, very analogous.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday May 29 2018, @02:33PM
There are a number of hits on "Sklyarov" when I do a search. Perhaps you could narrow it down? Like, maybe a first and last name? Approximate date? Which country? Without clicking on any of the links I found in the search, we have a Sklyarov at Chernobyl, another battling Adobe, another found vulnerabilities is Siemen's hardware, an article on a photographer who takes "stunning" photographs - and so much more.
I'm going to guess that you mean Dmitry Sklyarov. https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Charges-dropped-in-copyright-case-Russian-2840861.php [sfgate.com] For some reason, or some combination of reasons, I didn't hear about him when his case was active. Probably because I wasn't really "connected" to the world in those days - I spent most of my time on the road, and had little to do with the technical world.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Demena on Tuesday May 29 2018, @10:14AM (3 children)
Copyright extensions that are forced on the rest of the world.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday May 29 2018, @02:55PM (2 children)
You're making the same mistake the dimwit above did. Trade agreements I have no issue with but unilaterally declaring that other nations have to follow your laws is another.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Demena on Wednesday May 30 2018, @01:27AM (1 child)
No I am not, Scat. I do not thing you understand the word "agreement" and you certainly do not understand "unilaterally". I am quite sure that you are happy with the trade "agreement" the USA has with NK. I am sure that you are positive that it is not unilateral. How did you feel when your country unilaterally made mine a vassal state? Did you object, protest? Were you even alive?
You are a supporter of USA exceptionalism. When the USA does it is good and when anyone else does it, it is bad. Whatever "it" is.
Not just on this occasion but every time. Tell me (actually don 't bothers) what you think an "agreement" is, what unilateral means. Then consider power.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 30 2018, @01:39PM
You're deliberately misunderstanding everything you accuse me of misunderstanding and assuming several things about me that you should not be. I know it would throw your whole world view out the window but do try to see the truth. You can still hate on the US if you like after you do but you'll be doing it for valid reasons.
The difference between diplomacy and genuinely believing your laws apply outside your borders is pretty significant and it behooves you to try understanding it. One is saying "because it's the law" and one is saying "because I fucking said so".
If you want to get into a discussion about US foreign policy and diplomacy throughout the ages, peachy keen. Write a journal article and I'll be happy to give you my opinions on any instance you care to ask about. In this context it's deflection and whataboutism though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Tuesday May 29 2018, @01:05PM
Just because data protection in the abstract is a good thing doesn't mean the way the GDPR goes about it is necessarily a good approach. Many especially smaller website operators lack the resources to hire a representative in the Union pursuant to article 27. So instead, they put up a geoblock as a way of making it clear to regulators that they no longer offer goods or services to data subjects in the Union.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Tuesday May 29 2018, @07:49AM (1 child)
Of course you can ignore it - because SN doesn't do any of the things that the GDPR is there to protect against. We don't aggregate user data, we don't sell that data, we take reasonable precautions to protect the data (that we don't collect). If people want to close their account they can - and we will delete all the data that we haven't collected on them. That doesn't seem like a major imposition on us, or any imposition at all to be honest.
There appears to be a complete mind-fuck in the US regarding the GDPR. The only companies that should be concerned are the ones that are collecting data and then using it for purposes that the owner of that data hasn't agreed to. Nor do they give the data that they have collected adequate protection from abuse by accidental or malicious actors. And that is what is worrying some US companies. This might affect their business model - because despite what they claim their purpose to be on the web they actually make good money out of data collection and the sale and/or use of that data. Well, they are free to continue - but not with my data thank you.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 30 2018, @01:48PM
I was talking about my personal, non-SN dealings. I don't (and don't want to) make those kinds of decisions for SN. I just argue loudly about them. You already know this though, so I'll chalk it up to a lack of coffee worth drinking over on that side of the Atlantic induced misunderstanding.
Actually, I think we could and should do better on that. Thus the queued story that's awaiting notes, changes, and management signoff.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Demena on Tuesday May 29 2018, @08:46AM (1 child)
As a US citizen you will have no "personal dealings" or issues with the GDPR. It does not apply to US citizens (until they pass something similar).
If, as admin you control servers that face the EU and collect data inappropriately and fail to comply with the regulations then you may want to look for anther job because I doubt whoever you admin for will be willing to pay steady raising fines. In fact they will not be able to do so. The escalation in fines for repeats would be terminal.
You personal feeling about how the EU arranges and regulates its section of the internet is not something that anybody but you cares about. (See "personal").
Just do your job not what you think your job should be.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 30 2018, @01:55PM
I believe you lack understanding of the boundaries of national sovereignty with regards to the Internet. China does not get to tell me I must go through their great firewall to reach its citizens and the EU does not get to tell me how I must deal with data I collect on its citizens. They're both free to impart diplomatic consequences and even legal consequences should I ever visit within their borders but they do not have the authority to enforce local laws within US borders except as stipulated in treaties that the US has signed off on.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @09:23AM (2 children)
Except it's already too late. There's no exemption in the regulations for data collected prior to "GDPR day".
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @11:32AM
There is no exemption because that is the intent. Data collected before GDPR day is probably gathered without informed consent anyway. If you after GDPR day, inform your customers/visitors about the data you collect and what you do with it, then all data from that visitor that is accurately described, this is both data before and after GDPR day, is now legally obtained. In other words, there is no problem here.
By the way, I thought that informed consent is also part of the U.S. law. One big thing the GDPR does is define that informed consent significantly more clear.
(Score: 2) by datapharmer on Tuesday May 29 2018, @01:16PM
As someone who has customers hosted with Lee Enterprises (they sell their software as a service in addition to running it for their own publications) they are purging all European data from their sites and their customers' sites (they warned everyone first). The reason they are doing this is that they really are trying to comply with the GDPR, it is just that the GDPR is written in such a way that it is nearly impossible to comply 100% and run a functional news website with comments, etc. I'm all for the spirit of the GDPR but I suspect that anyone that thinks the GDPR is without its own problems either hasn't tried to actually comply with the letter of the law or doesn't fully understand it.