 | Interesting Facts about GDPR and Its Effect on the Internet |  |
| Interesting Facts about GDPR and Its Effect on the Internet | |
The GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation is a new law which has been enacted to protect the data of people in the EU along with the EEA. Although, one might not be particularly fond of certain requirements of the GDPR, however, something such as the GDPR has been necessary in order to get online advertisement as well as tracking by publishers in check. One of the effects which one might not be fond of is that the European users would be bombarded with - please accept - pop-ups or overlays on sites, by emails that state privacy policies have been updated. It is also important to mention the emails which ask for users to verify their newsletter subscriptions. It seems like a - we use cookies type of invasion of websites - once again.
Some of the companies even decided to block the users from the EU, rather than for creating a service which would have been compliant with the GDPR. From a pure business perspective, it is something that is somewhat understandable. However, if one were to look at it from the perspective of the customer, it would not be the case. Here are two of the examples which have had positive effects due to the GDPR either directly or indirectly are presented.
Anyone who is from the European Union or the EEA would be immediately redirected to - https://eu.usatoday.com/ - when they visit the USA Today website. Since, the page is without advertisement, tracking or any other script; it loads at amazing speeds as compared to the main USA Today website. A couple of connections are made by the site to a content delivery network (CDN), however, no third-party requests are used. The downside of this is that one would get a very basic site which has no news sections, no menus or anything else. The top news can be read on the site without any tracking or ads.
A - We Use - message is displayed at the bottom of the Verge. Users are only presented with one option which is to click on the - I accept - button. Unless the users click on this button, no script or tracking code would be loaded. Navigate the site without clicking on the accept button, and see it appears the entire time. The overlay can be hidden without accepting it. The uBlock Origin extension can be used for example as it has the element hider and it will hide the overlay. This technique works with just about any other site that displays the same message whenever you visit it.
Many businesses and sites are still working on the implementation for the acquiring of user consent. One thing about the GDPR is that users from outside the EU may also benefit from it as there are some companies which had announced that they will implement GDPR compliance worldwide. In order to enjoy the same rights as that of a European server, users would have to use a VPN.