It’s been a month since the GDPR came into effect and the storm, as it seems at first glance, has subsided. But despite this, it will be recalled that the GDPR is a broad topic that can and should be studied in detail, so as not to get into a slack.
Everyone knows what GDPR stands for, but for latecomers we’ll remind that it is the General Data Protection Regulation, a EU legal act that came into force at the end of May, 2018, and is intended to strengthen control over the collection, processing and transfer of personal data of EU residents and citizens within the European Union and beyond its borders.
Today we are going to reveal some curiosities happened in the IT arena due to a shiny new act, and how it has reflected on public opinion on social networks.
Remind me to flunk my GDPR or Global Giants hit with GDPR
Each and every, no exception! Even companies beyond the EU must come along with the new rules if offering their services to even a single client in the EU.
Thus, Pinterest and its news application Instapaper, on the very first day of the fresh GDPR, denied access for their users. But not for long, as they explained that they underestimated the amount of work connected with the transition to new rules.
Some video game companies also blocked their European users, rather than adapting to the new rules. Among them is the famous game Ragnarok Online, the developers of which promised to block all users from Europe.
The Stardust movie application is breaking bad removing its product from the European locations of the Google Play and App Store platforms, as well as all the records of its European users, given that since the “fateful GDPR Friday” it has no right even to store the data of its users from the EU without adaptation to the GDPR.
Here is how social media titans Facebook, Google, Instagram and WhatsApp have become the first quarry of GDPR noncompliance, filed within first few hours on the day the law entered into force throughout the UE. As BBC reports (https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44252327) IT companies, against which lawsuits were filed, stand accused of forcing users to agree to the new rules despite the fact that the law requires voluntary consent. Max Schrems, the chair of Noyb, compares “forced consent” to “North Korean election process”.
So, as a result, this violation is going to cost a pretty penny reaching up to 8.8 mln.
It becomes obvious, that the new law significantly expands the concept of “personal data”. It gives a user more control over personal information, thus it was dubbed as the most user-friendly law ever existed, unless since that day users have to read the same letters several times a day, although many of them haven’t any faintest idea what are those letters about. Obtrusiveness of notifications sent by companies to e-mail has generated the flow of memes and jokes, that are equally bountiful as the privacy policy updates are! Check the best ones out there!
Dance, you got a letter!
The waterfalls of privacy policy update emails are just unstoppable. Recently many of us have received loads of e-mails and messages from various Internet services and applications warning about processing our personal data. The number of such letters turned out to be great and there are many who complains, because they are receiving mailings from any site where they have ever , at least once, left their email address.
The invasion of messages is closely related to changes in the privacy policy. All due to the new GDPR regulations, that demand the company that collects personal data to disclose what information is collected, who collects it, how and by whom, for what purpose and on what grounds it is being processed.
It seems that the updating of the regulations affected literally everyone and everything, even though it has no connection with the Internet and personal data. Which actually made GDPR a trendy pop culture event, and caused thousands of jokes, memes and gags burst out in social media.
The GDPR-thing was so big even Star Wars couldn’t pass by. Rian Johnson, director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, shared this meme on his Twitter account:
Selfie is at gunpoint!!
Love making pics? Can’t live without selfie? BEWARE!
The GDPR introduces a regulation on the prohibition of the publication of photos of third parties without their consent. This hot potato burned up the international cabels.
But, don’t worry, and let it out! In fact, it’s not that tough as it sounds. According to the the new regulation, photographing a person and the subsequent use of such pics not in all cases requires some documented consent. It is necessary to distinguish the purpose of using photographs: personal or related to business one.
But if some innocent bystander should just happen to see his image in your photo and he might ask you to delete this picture, so you will either have to cover up this person’s face so that it can not be identified, or even delete the photo.
So, what to do next?
To sum up, GDPR is designed to support users in controlling their personal data usage. Rumor has it the European authorities will soon arrange several “demonstration lawsuits” against violators of the GDPR, in order to demonstrate to others the seriousness of their intentions in the matter of compliance with the new rules.
But it’s not all that scary and bad. GDPR caused a wave of ultimate fun in social media and pop culture.
To skip the “blacklist” make your choice – stay GDPR compliant and your business will smoothly continue on its way, or just shut it down and snap out the burden of duty.
