U.S. Websites Go Dark in Europe as GDPR Data Rules Kick In

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-websites-go-dark-in-europe-as-gdpr-data-rules-kick-in-1527242038

by ytNumbers • 8 years ago

26 42 8 years ago

rekshaw• 8 years ago

Just in case you're not a WSJ subscriber, use this to bypass the pay wall: https://m.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Fa...

huhtenberg• 8 years ago

This leads straight to the Facebook login form.

jmiserez• 8 years ago

That just opens the page via a FB referral, basically this bookmarklet:

    javascript:window.location.href='https://m.facebook.com/l.php?u='+encodeURIComponent(window.location.href);

MaxBarraclough• 8 years ago

Can confirm.

I tried the Archive.org copies, and I tried private browsing - not any better. Trying again now though, WSJ seems to be giving me the full article.

hkchad• 8 years ago

I find outline is easier and less icky than facebook,

https://outline.com/KDybmC

AhtiK• 8 years ago

Looks like strictly specific to Tronc publishing, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tronc#Newspapers

Anyone else blocking?

Additionally, blocking access to the site that already has the data from the people of EU is violating GDPR more than simply keeping the site alive. GDPR is not about the data that is collected only after the May 25th.

marksomnian• 8 years ago

Instapaper

elcapitan• 8 years ago

They're just temporarily down though.

codedokode• 8 years ago

Why block EU users instead of just disabling analytics and ads for them?

Turing_Machine• 8 years ago

Because that would result in the EU users burning bandwidth and processor time without any offsetting revenue.

I'd imagine that the cost of providing (say) the Los Angeles Times to the EU is non-trivial.

bryanlarsen• 8 years ago

That doesn't make a political statement.

letsgetphysITal2• 8 years ago

Yet you can still get to tronc.com

Their HTTPS implementation is broken, though; Cert common name wasn't set properly. GJ!

efbb• 8 years ago

Pretty sure WSJ is non-compliant to GDPR by not providing the option for EU readers to opt out of their cookie policy, ironic that that will be a reason for Tronc blocking EU readers altogether.

philfrasty• 8 years ago

11 cookies for me

downandout4• 8 years ago

GDPR doesn’t apply to WSJ or any other site that doesn’t “envisage” offering its services to users in the EU. See recital 23.

Edit: apparently they accept EU currencies, which means they have subjected themselves to it.

dekrg2• 8 years ago

What? It says the opposite - if you are providing services to EU residents outside of the EU GDPR applies to you.

http://www.privacy-regulation.eu/en/recital-23-GDPR.htm

In order to ensure that natural persons are not deprived of the protection to which they are entitled under this Regulation, the processing of personal data of data subjects who are in the Union by a controller or a processor not established in the Union should be subject to this Regulation where the processing activities are related to offering goods or services to such data subjects irrespective of whether connected to a payment.

letsgetphysITal2• 8 years ago

Does the WSJ accept subscriptions from non-US citizens? If so, they had better get GDPR compliant.

degeberg• 8 years ago

They do '“envisage” offering its services to users in the EU'. That page has a massive ad (700x500 px) suggesting that I buy a subscription for "DKK10 FOR 3 MONTHS".

If offering their service priced in the local currency of an EU member state doesn't constitute offering services to users in the EU, then I'm not sure what could possibly qualify.

ahofmann• 8 years ago

Where is it written that EU citizens can refuse cookies? As far as I know one must inform that cookies are stored and for what purpose.

tobltobs2• 8 years ago

If those cookies are not necessary for operating, like tracking cookies, you have to ask the user before you set the cookie. If you ask, you have to be specific for what the cookie is used. The checkbox or slider has not to be prechecked. You also have to provide a way to the user to withdraw his consent. And you have to keep an audit trail for the given consent.

dvfjsdhgfv3• 8 years ago

We are engaged on the issue

Dear Tronc,

You had two years to comply. You are being ridiculous. Good luck with complying.

EU Users

Iv• 8 years ago

As a European who has many time been asked to comply with the various sillinesses coming from US legislators, I must say there is some strong schadenfreude on this current event.

And for once, I think that the law that annoys everybody actually comes from a good intent (protecting users instead of profits)

TimJYoung• 8 years ago

Yeah, I've got to agree on this point. Whenever I hear complaints from US citizens, I think to myself: imagine having your whole country need to learn another language in order to do business...we are very lucky that much of the world does business in English, and we are able to benefit greatly from that.

y_molodtsov• 8 years ago

Almost nobody talked about it 2 years ago.

dvfjsdhgfv3• 8 years ago

Exactly two years ago I was asked to prepare a list of all databases containing personal data that I have access to and briefly describe what I need them for. This was the moment my company started to prepare for the GDPR.

dvfjsdhgfv3• 8 years ago

Aggressive potential penalties are likely to affect some business decisions.

Aggressive user tracking and nonchalant attitude to users' personal data seems to be less problematic to them.

mrleiter• 8 years ago

This regulation has been on its way for 2 years, and before that it was discussed extensively. Any big corporation not complying or making such a move as simply blocking EU users is ridiculous. Lobbying obviously didn't work so now they want users to revolt against EU lawmakers, or what is the endgoal here? There was enough time to comply, I find this behaviour unfair and short-sighted on the mid to long run.

pjc50• 8 years ago

I'm actually looking forward to seeing less US news. One of the downsides of being on the global English-speaking internet of social link propagation-discussion sites is that it's incredibly US centric. We need to pay more attention to our own countries and localities.

darkgray• 8 years ago

Japanese forum giant 5ch (formerly 2ch) has also decided to IP block all of EU in order to "comply" with GDPR, as of a few days ago.

I've been hoping it wouldn't spread, since it's depressing to be confined to a little internet bubble in this day and age. Guess I'll be needing a VPN.

cyber• 8 years ago

Careful which countries you go to with that VPN. You don’t want to intentionally circumvent an access control restriction. ;)

jake_the_third• 8 years ago

As a non-European who has no problems complying with the GDPR and has resources at his disposal: Please, If someone knows of a list of all companies and services that refuse to comply with the GDPR, please point me to it.

To me, this seems like an incredible once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get into previously captured markets.

sildur• 8 years ago

Well, good riddance to all of those companies which do not want to comply with a law made to protect citizen’s privacy. Europeans now have an antispam, anticrooks filter for free.

drivingmenuts• 8 years ago

So what happens with all the open-source projects that EU citizens are involved in? Some of those are (more or less) based in the US. Are they also covered by the GDPR or is it just businesses?

stunt• 8 years ago

If your core values are we don't give a f.. to our user's privacy, obviously you don't do anything in 2 years for them.

legitster• 8 years ago

To add some flavor to this, there are only a handful of vendors that sell cookie opt-in software in the US, and implementing one on our own tiny site was a nightmare. If the business model revolves around ads or third party services, I can't imagine how much worse it would be to get running.

U.S. Websites Go Dark in Europe as GDPR Data Rules Kick In

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