zlacker

>>grabeh+(OP)
For those of you understandably intimidated by the GDPR regulations themselves, here's a good summary in plain English: https://blog.varonis.com/gdpr-requirements-list-in-plain-eng...

The UK's ICO also has a good structured summary: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-da...

In general I agree with the sentiments in this article. I've probably spent a total of three to four days reading around the GDPR and I don't really see what's special about this law other than it's imposing decent standards on what was in effect a wildly unregulated industry in people's personal data. If you have a broad distrust of any government activity then I suppose any new laws with "fines up to €X" might feel like "I run a small site on a Digital Ocean droplet and I'm at risk of a €2m fine out of the blue." But that doesn't make it true.

>>frereu+N2
There is nothing - and I do mean nothing - written into the GDPR that requires any warnings of any kind, or places any limits on fines, except for $10/$20 million or 4% of revenue, whichever is greater. Period. A multimillion-dollar fine without warning for a first, minor violation is perfectly lawful under GDPR. The idea that "yes it says that but we can trust EU regulators to not assess large fines against foreign companies, even though they would benefit handsomely from them" rings hollow to me.

>>downan+Fc
In principle I might agree with you, however the EU has a long history of striking a fair balance between consumer rights and commercial interests. There is no point, in history, of the EU doing anything remotely like you've described. Which actually gives me more faith in the GDPR than legislation in a corrupt ecosystem as corrupt individuals will find a way to warp legislation in their favor anyway.

So yes, I do trust the EU and their history has proven that the aforementioned idea isn't a hollow one.

>>laumar+dd
Related to this, there is a difference in culture that may had add to the fear for people running SMEs outside of Europe. I am talking about a difference in the culture of fines, at least at the local level of government based on my personal experience. When I lived in Canada (and the US briefly) it was common for me to get fined for various trivial offences. I used to joke I should have a fine budget, or at least fine schedule for attending court. The local authorities set speed traps, fine for crossing the road at the wrong place, not shoveling snow quickly etc. My parents in-law and everyone on their whole street got fined for parking their cars on the street by a by-law officer instead of their driveways when the houses were new builds still getting constructed and new drive ways were clearly in the process of being constructed and could not be entered. There was someone in the news who got arrested for not mowing their lawn. I'm not making this up, just do a search, in fact it seems dozens of people have been sent to jail for not paying fines for not keeping up with landscaping in the US. Now since being back in the UK for six years I've not received a single fine, had any interaction with the police or courts. There is a big difference in how fines are applied in Europe and I agree with your comment that I do trust the EU more in this regard, based on the way they operate historically.