I love seeing this, and love seeing regulations working exactly as wanted! What I see is basically "We're unable to serve this website without compromising your privacy, so instead of pretending or giving you a choice, we give you this message so you can turn around".

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troad 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> "We're unable to serve this website without compromising your privacy... "

More accurately, "we do not have the staff or funds to figure out what every single random law around the globe requires of us, and since foreign countries are not a realistic advertising market for a local Michigan newspaper, there's really no reason for us to try."

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embedding-shape 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Well, you don't have to do any of that stuff if you either are upfront about selling user data and ask if it's OK, or if you just don't do that stuff at all.

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master-lincoln 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

But to know that you would have to study the laws of other countries or in this case EU which costs money and in this case is not an obviously beneficial investment.

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soopypoos 2 hours ago | parent [-]

they blocked a continent without seeking any advice?

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forgotaccount3 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Why not? That continent is not their target audience.

It probably wasn't worth the effort to block foreign countries just from random unnecessary compute cost to serve a site to them, but when those countries start being serious about penalties you could face for serving their residents? Now it's justifiable to block non-US countries.

	▲	soopypoos 17 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		the thing is "We don't want to get legal advice" is a ridiculous justification for acting on legal advice

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troad 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

European law imposes a great deal more obligations on a business than that. This claim is simplistic to the point of disingenuousness.

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embedding-shape an hour ago | parent [-]

Since obviously there is no "European law" in the first place, I think it's pretty safe to assume you have no idea what you're talking about.

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Ylpertnodi an hour ago | parent [-]

Interpol would like a word.

	▲	embedding-shape an hour ago \| parent [-]
		> Interpol would like a word. Also not a "European law" by any measure or understanding, that's a international organization that does police cooperation across the continent (and further), it isn't even a law enforcement agency... Not exactly sure how you could confuse that with laws, but here we are.

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charcircuit 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

>since foreign countries are not a realistic advertising market for a local Michigan newspaper

This may be true for in house ads, but there are ad networks that already are able to personalize ads and have ad inventory for such foreign countries.

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hypeatei 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What does GDPR get you that browser settings and an extension don't? I'm genuinely curious how random websites refusing to serve content / spamming cookie banners is a good thing?

The data download and removal side of GDPR seems useful for more "entrenched" use cases where you have an account and a long history on a service but... fly-by website visits should not be this heavily regulated. Blocking cookies and scripts is trivial.

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embedding-shape an hour ago | parent | next [-]

> I'm genuinely curious how random websites refusing to serve content / spamming cookie banners is a good thing?

They refuse to allow visitors to visit their website without taking, processing and selling their data and letting those visitors know that this is happening. That they outright block me instead of doing those anyways, clearly is a good thing and in my benefit.

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colejohnson66 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I should not need extensions for a business to respect my privacy. It's as simple as that.

If you look at it through an equity angle, needing extensions relegates the negative effects to those that are already not "well off" — the technologically illiterate who don't know what to do or know someone who does.

	▲	Minor49er 29 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Why is the government making efforts to increase technological literacy not an option?
	▲	hypeatei 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		So someone's refusal to make a couple clicks to install an extension necessitates: 1) millions of users having to click to get the annoying popup off their screen, 2) installing an extension to block those anyway, and 3) a more fractured internet where website operators outright refuse to serve content because of liability? I'd bet a very large sum of money that the technologically illiterate don't read anything on those popups and click "Accept all cookies"

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ciupicri 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Right... as if can trust some random American or other non-European website that it really respects the law. What are you gonna do if it breaks the GDPR law? GDPR ruined the Internet.

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master-lincoln 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I'd argue greedy capitalists ruined it. They were also the cause of GDPR

	▲	philipallstar 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They also built it out.

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ataru 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's illegal for us to steal from you, so we won't invite you inside.