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quietus [soylentnews.org] writes:

Wilbur Ross, the US commerce secretary has penned an opinion piece about GDPR in the Financial Times*.

In short, GDPR [europa.eu] is unclear -- "guidance on GDPR implementation is too vague" -- will create barriers to trade -- "serious, unclear legal obligations for both private and public sector entities, including the US government", could threaten public welfare on both sides of the Atlantic, delay the approval of new life-saving drugs and prevent the effective treatment of epidemics like Ebola.

And then Whois [theregister.co.uk].

GDPR also raises concern for law enforcement and intellectual property rights by restricting access to publicly available internet domain-name registration data. We anticipate companies will either stop providing "Whois" lookup services outright, or make it hard to access information. That could stop law enforcement from ascertaining who is behind websites that propagate terrorist information, sponsor malicious botnets or steal IP addresses.

We do not have a clear understanding of what is required to comply, the commerce secretary sighs.

Finally, secretary Ross dropped an interesting note, about the US Postal Service no less. Tantamount is that "the new rules will prevent EU postal operators from providing the personal data on individuals it needs to process inbound mail."

Assuming the commerce secretary isn't talking about name and address: what personal information?

* Europe's data privacy laws are likely to create barriers to trade. Wilbur Ross, US commerce secretary, Financial Times, May 31.

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