Taking a Pull-the-Plug Approach to GDPR Compliance
Despite having two years of lead time, some organizations are complying with the new EU General Data Protection Regulation by simply discontinuing services.
On GDPR-Day last month, dozens of web sites shut down their activities completely, while others forced users to agree to new terms of service. Several companies outside of the EU blocked all European users from their servers—some temporarily, others permanently.
Tronc Inc., publisher of the Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, and other U.S. newspapers, was among those that blocked readers in the European Union from accessing sites, as they scrambled to comply.
Instapaper, which enables users to save articles to read at a later date, disconnected European customers a day before GDPR came into force. American media network A+E has blocked EU visitors from all its web sites, and multiplayer online games such as Ragnarok Online have switched off their EU servers.
Unroll.me, an inbox management firm, announced it was completely withdrawing services for EU companies because its product – which is monetized by selling insights gleaned from reading users’ e-mails – is incompatible with EU law.
