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by codazoda·8y ago·view on hn ↗
I run a simple personal blog. I make a meager $200 a year or so from targetted ads on that blog. I have Adsense and Analytics collecting what they collect. My stats have IP's, countries, browsers, OS's, list of pages a visitor looked at, etc. I look through the info on occassion to decide which random rambling I wrote that I should improve or update on the site. This is a hobby but it has expenses and income so it's effectively a business.

At $200 a year there's no point spending even a few hours to figure out if I need to ensure GDPR compliance in the first place much less to do so. No point in figureing out how to erase users if I should ever be asked to, etc.

Last night I tried to log into AdSense and turn off targetted ads because I figure that handles most of my risk and is one of the evils people seem to be trying to kill. I couldn't find the option, only found old articles about it "coming soon" on Google, and got nowhere in a half hour or so.

Are there any limits to the sizes of companies that have to deal with this? Blocking EU might be the only real option I have (although some say that's not even enough).

2 comments
You filthy person. You're violating people's human rights! Shut it down immediately or face the consequences! The world is better off without your dirty honey trap that tries to STEAL AND THEN SELL USER DATA!!!

/s, obviously

This is only slightly more hysterical and illogical than the typical fan of the GDPR on HN seems to be.

IANAL, but if I were in your shoes, I'd either block the EU if that's easy, or just ignore this entirely. They can't enforce anything.

Yes, I believe Google is still working on this. Looks like their drop-in thing won't be ready for a couple months:

https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/9031649?hl=en

You can just turn off ads for a while and then turn them on again when Google has gotten their shit sorted out, or leave them on because honestly you're very unlikely to come to the attention of the regulators -- especially since they're not yet fully staffed and funded for this. :-)

Blocking EU users doesn't actually protect you, and will just piss people off -- not to mention look shady, and thereby increase the chances of you coming to the attention of regulators!