> "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 20 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.