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equity78

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As we get closer to GDPR being official more and more reactions and questions come in. I noticed today that Theo at DomainGang.com is going to block Europe from accessing his blog. Someone told me I should do that two weeks ago. I had a couple readers express their desire to ban Europeans from making offers on or buying their domain names. One reader came from a place of worry and the other a place … [Read more...]
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Many people will try to file a lawsuit, this GDPR can become money making tool for many people. Is it true?

The slogan is "data is new oil". Europe missed the train. They (European lawmakers) are now playing villain's role. Is it true? If true, what is the safeguard? Please suggest.
 
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This law is complicated. Assume you have a site that is #1 on google for many keywords. This law opens a door to your competitors. Because you can't make sure that you comply with such a broad law that aims to regulate privacy on the internet. You can't regulate internet with a law. Because internet is complicated and change fast.
There are many things that record IP address of visitors such as operating systems, webservers, databases, php scripts, third party trackers like ads and statistics. You can't control all of these factors, can't delete IP addresses, can't stop being recorded. If you allow EU traffic, you leave an open door to your competitors to attack you by using this new EU law.
I think blocking is not the solution. There might be other way, e.g. move webserver to USA or Canada.???
 
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Many people will try to file a lawsuit, this GDPR can become money making tool for many people. Is it true?

The slogan is "data is new oil". Europe missed the train. They (European lawmakers) are now playing villain's role. Is it true? If true, what is the safeguard? Please suggest.

I think this law will be primarily used by website owners to attack each other. Blocking EU traffic is the way to go.
 
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I think blocking is not the solution. There might be other way.

yes there is another way, paying the fine. It's not too much money, minimum 20 millions euro:)
 
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yes there is another way, paying the fine. It's not too much money, minimum 20 millions euro:)
Suppose my web server located in USA or Canada, How they can fine me? Can I ignore them?
 
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@poweredbyme are you an European? I think it will affect mostly European online business. Now it is looks like they axe on their own feet.
 
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Suppose my web server located in USA or Canada, How they can fine me? Can I ignore them?

Server location looks irrelevant but keeping the server out of EU would be a wise move. This law applies to EU visitors only, doesn't apply to the visitors from other countries. If you block EU traffic you should be safe from this trouble.
20+ millions euro is too much money.
wikipedia says EU is representing ~22% of global economy. However not all of the EU countries speak English. So, blocking EU traffic should lower website profits by less than 22%, should be around 10%. Most EU visitors don't even see ads as they use ad blockers more than other parts of the World, or the CTR is lowest when they don't block ads. EU traffic can be disregarded for many informational websites and blogs and most of websites are in this category.
 
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No matter how many times you say it, blocking EU citizens isn't a solution and doesn't absolve you of your responsibility to protect and manage existing EU data held about your users.

Yes websites can be complicated. If you own it and run it you'll have to deal with it. Unfortunately "websites are complicated" wouldn't go down very well in the courtroom. They would want to see evidence of reasonable steps to comply.

Rather than convincing yourself and others that it is a silver bullet solution, or worrying about the unlikely event that you will be going to court over this, you ought to focus your attention on real solutions instead of lazy ones.
 
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Many people will try to file a lawsuit, this GDPR can become money making tool for many people. Is it true?

The slogan is "data is new oil". Europe missed the train. They (European lawmakers) are now playing villain's role. Is it true? If true, what is the safeguard? Please suggest.

People can only file a lawesuit if a company is unwilling to comply with the GDPR and only concerning their own data. Unlikely this is going to happen as you'll have to lawyer up yourself to get that to court. Being on the other side of the planet doesn't help in that scenario.

The real lawsuits that may happen are those initiated by 'europe'. They are the one who can impose these big fines and whatever the fine is, you'll personally won't see a single dime out of it. So no, not an issue.

Competition may rat you out sure, but that would be as likely a they would tip the IRS so...

As for websites... complicated. They're still working on some adjustments but if you show good intent you'll be fine. If you have a 'real business' spend the money and adjust it. You're a business for gods sake.

If you really think this will just be an EU thing/law you're wrong. More countries will in some way follow this path as will the gorilla companies who basically power the internet.

I'm not trying to make a judgement about either side but this is the reality. Do as you see fit but to think long-term would be my advise.
 
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No. Blocking Europeans is not a proportionate response.
 
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Got the best comment now, guy says he from Canada and girlfriend from Europe. he broke up with her because of GDPR. #Hilarious
 
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Got the best comment now, guy says he from Canada and girlfriend from Europe. he broke up with her because of GDPR. #Hilarious

LOL !!

GDPR is something new, and the most important thing is first to investigate the GDPR, and think what the consequences could be. It's sure that a massive response will come against "unintended consequences" of the new law. And it's also possible some people misinterpret the law.
I think they (European Commission, or is it the Council of ministers that took the decision ?) probably will have to change the whole thing or specify it.
I still have to investigate the whole mumbo jumbo and the law and its consequences.
I know some countries that have privacyprotecting laws, but that didn't have as consequence that the whois vanished, or only partly (emailaddress stay shown).
 
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If you think this is a. something totally new and b. a strictly European thing:
Australian shoppers face Amazon restrictions
It is tax. All country implement tax if the transaction is international. My purchase experience example: While Purchase from USA (Local tax added),
Purchase from Germany (Local tax added)
Purchase from Canada (Local tax + Canada VAT) I wonder why?
 
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Questions... (mainly regarding GDRP & ICO)

1) Do they have authority? Authority to fine... authority to regulate...authority to bring you to court, even if you don't live in EU?

2) Outside Europe, there will be a ton of people that will claim, "they have no jurisdiction where I am". So, what happens if those people refuse to comply. Refuse to pay a fine? Refuse to go to court? Refuse to care?

I think the first court cases will be interesting.
 
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Questions... (mainly regarding GDRP & ICO)

1) Do they have authority? Authority to fine... authority to regulate...authority to bring you to court, even if you don't live in EU?

2) Outside Europe, there will be a ton of people that will claim, "they have no jurisdiction where I am". So, what happens if those people refuse to comply. Refuse to pay a fine? Refuse to go to court? Refuse to care?

I think the first court cases will be interesting.

Good questions... it will be interesting for sure. I guess it highly depends on the willingness of your country to cooperate with europe. Europe has no authority I guess but I'm sure there are a lot of agreements on the table.

My best bet is if you're unwilling to comply, not pay the fine etc nothing happens... untill you enter EU territory that is. I guess it would be the same as if the US would sue me. They can have a ruling but unless my country decides to extradite me nothing happens. No more trips to Vegas though :).

Globally operating businesses will comply. Most of them have divisions or offices in Europe to profit off the tax rates so they're under EU jurisdiction.
 
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1) Do they have authority?
Possibly.
Say you do business in Europe/with Europeans. Then EU and national laws may apply to you, regardless of where you live.

Again, not a European thing. Americans in particular really think their laws should apply worldwide (sometimes, beyond the reasonable). Example: Microsoft Corp. v. United States

Also, authoritarian governments like those in China and Russia now require companies like Linked Facebook etc to keep their own nationals' personal data on servers hosted on their soil. Allegedly for data protection reasons, but the motive is of course spying. Unfortunately, the extent of US spying is such that it has provided justification for that kind of regulations.
Globalization still goes hand in hand with legal fragmentation and granular control.

Differences between the US and Europe regarding privacy and protection of personal data have a long history ie the now defunct Safe harbor framework.
 
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I expect this whole mess to clear-up by the end of the year, with every European domain registry offering data protection opt-out, so in 2019 the GDPR will not be a topic that entices heavy discussion.
 
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The www was invented by Europeans 🤣 in CERN ( Switzerland) 🇨🇭

Did I miss something.....that was the first website. Which was created by Tim Berners-Lee (An Englishman)

Seen some crazy posts here, talking about 'English' being dropped as an official language :ROFL::ROFL: etc Over 1.5 billion natural English speakers with another 1 billion speaking it as a second language - these were stats from 2015, so I expect it's gone up a bit.

GDRP is a pain but I think most people will find ways to work around, without blocking the whole of Europe from viewing there websites.
 
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Did I miss something.....that was the first website. Which was created by Tim Berners-Lee (An Englishman)

Seen some crazy posts here, talking about 'English' being dropped as an official language :ROFL::ROFL: etc Over 1.5 billion natural English speakers with another 1 billion speaking it as a second language - these were stats from 2015, so I expect it's gone up a bit.

GDRP is a pain but I think most people will find ways to work around, without blocking the whole of Europe from viewing there websites.
Yes, he was an englishman working in Switzerland at the time he created the first website.
I wonder where do you find your stats... I found stats talking about anything between 330 and 400 millions native speakers, nowhere near your 1.5 billion. Even if you count everybody in the world who speaks english at an acceptable level, still there aren't 1.5 billions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language
 
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Yes, he was an englishman working in Switzerland at the time he created the first website.
I wonder where do you find your stats... I found stats talking about anything between 330 and 400 millions native speakers, nowhere near your 1.5 billion. Even if you count everybody in the world who speaks english at an acceptable level, still there aren't 1.5 billions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language

Stats are from 2015 - out of the total 195 countries in the world, 67 nations have English as the primary language of 'official status'. Plus there are also 27 countries where English is spoken as a secondary 'official' language. That's 48% of all the countries. Population wise that equals roughly 20% of the planet. That's approximately 1.5 billion. Add in the many people who can speak more than two languages and you can bet one of those languages is English.

You say 330 to 400 million, yet America has approx 250 million and India has 230 million - that's just 2 countries. That's already way above your estimate, add in the 79 million from Nigeria and you already have 550 million!

The Wikipedia article you reference mentions it's not easy to distinguish between 1st & 2nd language but secondary speakers are likely to range to the 1000 million mark. The Wikipedia article is also 12 years out of date.

It's hard to work out the exact amount as the figures, depending on the source, range widely. However I am confident your calculation is wrong.
 
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Stats are from 2015 - out of the total 195 countries in the world, 67 nations have English as the primary language of 'official status'. Plus there are also 27 countries where English is spoken as a secondary 'official' language. That's 48% of all the countries. Population wise that equals roughly 20% of the planet. That's approximately 1.5 billion. Add in the many people who can speak more than two languages and you can bet one of those languages is English.

You say 330 to 400 million, yet America has approx 250 million and India has 230 million - that's just 2 countries. That's already way above your estimate, add in the 79 million from Nigeria and you already have 550 million!

The Wikipedia article you reference mentions it's not easy to distinguish between 1st & 2nd language but secondary speakers are likely to range to the 1000 million mark. The Wikipedia article is also 12 years out of date.

It's hard to work out the exact amount as the figures, depending on the source, range widely. However I am confident your calculation is wrong.
India has 230 millions? As far as I know, they are over 1 billion, I don't know where do you find your stats, but they are completly wrong, hopefully you are not using the same sources for your domains. Nigeria is using a blend between English and a few other African languages, believe me, you will not understand to many words based on that language. India has English as an official language, but nobody it's using it at home and the majority of population are not speaking it, English is used mostly in offices. You fail to distinguish between native speakers and the one's using English as a second and a third language. A comparation between Spanish native speakers and English native speakers will be always favourable to Spanish speakers. We are not even talking about US, where a big portion of the population it's represented by Spanish native speakers and their growth rate it's more than double than the one of English speakers. Whatever investment you do, offline or online, you should always use the correct stats, otherwise you could be in big trouble.
 
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India has 230 millions? As far as I know, they are over 1 billion, I don't know where do you find your stats, but they are completly wrong, hopefully you are not using the same sources for your domains. Nigeria is using a blend between English and a few other African languages, believe me, you will not understand to many words based on that language. India has English as an official language, but nobody it's using it at home and the majority of population are not speaking it, English is used mostly in offices. You fail to distinguish between native speakers and the one's using English as a second and a third language. A comparation between Spanish native speakers and English native speakers will be always favourable to Spanish speakers. We are not even talking about US, where a big portion of the population it's represented by Spanish native speakers and their growth rate it's more than double than the one of English speakers. Whatever investment you do, offline or online, you should always use the correct stats, otherwise you could be in big trouble.

That's the Indian population of English speakers 230 MILLION - not the entire population of India my friend!

Your stats are coming from a Wikipedia page that's using basic stats from 2006. I would totally disagree with 'nobody is using English at home' - myself and over 1.5 billion others are using it right now, whether at home or in the office. Which is my point - English is not a dying language as was mentioned within this thread.

My stats are based on multiple sources - I don't just rely on Wikipedia

Whether English has 300 million or 700 or 1000 million native speakers, the point is that 20% of the globe speak English. When you add the 2nd or 3rd language speakers in, this figure would rise to well over 2 billion. That's plenty enough for this proud Englishman to say, the language isn't going anywhere!

Having English as my first language is a plus. In the world today, it's a far more powerful business tool than Spanish.

According to Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/pascal...ata-suggests-it-could-be-french/#3e2535e46d58 French could actually be the number 1 by 2050. So I'll be polishing up on that before learning Spanish.
 
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That's the Indian population of English speakers 230 MILLION - not the entire population of India my friend!

Your stats are coming from a Wikipedia page that's using basic stats from 2006. I would totally disagree with 'nobody is using English at home' - myself and over 1.5 billion others are using it right now, whether at home or in the office. Which is my point - English is not a dying language as was mentioned within this thread.

My stats are based on multiple sources - I don't just rely on Wikipedia

Whether English has 300 million or 700 or 1000 million native speakers, the point is that 20% of the globe speak English. When you add the 2nd or 3rd language speakers in, this figure would rise to well over 2 billion. That's plenty enough for this proud Englishman to say, the language isn't going anywhere!

Having English as my first language is a plus. In the world today, it's a far more powerful business tool than Spanish.

According to Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/pascal...ata-suggests-it-could-be-french/#3e2535e46d58 French could actually be the number 1 by 2050. So I'll be polishing up on that before learning Spanish.
Check official sources like US government or EU statistics, if Wikipedia it's not good enough for you. The 230 millions are the one's who are speaking it as a second language. You should visit India before arguing and check yourself how many Indians are talking English in public spaces, on the street on so on. If still in doubt, I can connect you with an Indian family living in Dublin for 10 years now, they own a few restaurants, they are from New Delhi and they will tell you that they Don't know anybody talking English at home in India. I'm not arguing that English will die, I'm arguing that there are more Spanish speakers than English. Regarding your success in business using English, you should visit Madrid or Paris, than let me know how successful were you.
 
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You should visit India before arguing and check yourself how many Indians are talking English in public spaces

You clearly haven't visited England.

mate, you do know we ruled India for 347 years, until 1947 right? There are literally millions and millions of Indians that speak English almost as a first language - that's the reason many English companies out source call centers to India. I wouldn't be surprised if more than 230 million speak it fluently. Yes it may not be there mother tongue, but it still counts towards the 2 billion+.

you should visit Madrid or Paris, than let me know how successful were you.

I have been to both. I don't speak Spanish, but my French is good. I don't need to go there to trade, I work from the UK and everyone who wants to deal speaks English, fact! Whether they are from Spain, France or Timbuktu, if they're serious about doing business they will negotiate in English. English is the international business language. This isn't to say I wouldn't try to communicate in another language if needed.

There are so many more English speakers than Spanish overall. It's not even a contest when you include all categories, such as native + 2nd + 3rd language. It would be very close when just including native though, I'm not sure which would win on that alone.
 
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