As we get closer to GDPR being official more and more reactions and questions come in.
I noticed today that Theo at DomainGang.com is going to block the 28 countries of the EU from accessing his blog.
Someone told me I should do that two weeks ago. I had a couple readers express their desire to ban Europeans from making offers on or buying their domain names.
One reader came from a place of worry and the other a place of rage. The first reader was concerned about having the data of a European who made an offer on his lander.
The second no longer wants Europeans to be able to buy his names or make offers. They believe that Europeans and GDPR are responsible for whois going away and a lot of extra red tape for domainers.
I don’t know if you want to ban a whole continent from purchasing your names, but they have every right to manage their business how they see fit.
To the first reader’s worry, while I am not a lawyer from what I read they are expressing their consent by making an offer so I think they have nothing to worry about.
This infographic from the EU is helpful in at least understanding the basics.
I have to say the business card information that DomainGang published was surprising. Someone pointed out that was a joke post where the first post was not, one of the things about mixing real and fake posts. Good one Theo.
One has to wonder will European domainers get shunned in the industry? The second reader I mentioned asked me if Namepros would support him placing “no Europeans” in his sales threads at Namepros? I don’t have that answer but I don’t think Namepros will fall into that rabbit hole.
Frank says
I blame Europe for fucking up our industry yes.
Jonathan says
“our industry” : )
Frank says
Well maybe you are not included in our, probably a european socialist. #BlockEurope
Mark Thorpe says
Little extreme to ban a whole continent, but to each their own.
DVentures says
It’s not the fault of the European Domainers for GDRP. They are suffering as much as us, if not more. We should try and conduct our business taking into effect whatever has come into play. Simply banning is not the solution. What if the US comes up with something similar??? Quite within the realm of possibility!
Leo Golan says
It surely IS the fault of all Europeans. They allowed those euro-bureaucrats (who were never elected by nobody btw) to rule and to install such idiotic laws.
gpmgroup says
GDPR will do massive damage to small European businesses because a lot of existing customers will simply not respond to their requests to opt in and then those small businesses will have no way of reaching their valued customers.
Those registrars operating under an EU jurisdiction who think simply blanking the public WHOIS will satisfy their GDPR obligations are in for a nasty surprise if the EU member states decide to enforce GDPR obligations against them.
Michael says
I’m in Europe and I can’t access DomainGang unless I use a proxy, but I won’t bother.
I think Theo is being more unreasonable than the European Commission who came up with this whole thing.
Acro says
Michael – If you won’t bother, then my loss is zero, you’re not a fan obviously.
Those that do bother, will try to circumvent the blockade and continue perusing my daily content. The Opera browser is one such good option, it uses proxies by default.
Either way, I’m sorry I made your life more difficult by blocking Eurozone IPs, and my reasons were fully explained.
Acro says
Thanks for the extra coverage, Raymond. Hardly extreme of a measure, and barely affecting traffic.
A couple of points: Only the 28 countries of the EU are being blocked, not “Europe” as a whole, that has 50 countries.
Unless living under a rock, you’d realize that many US companies are doing the same, and some with a business model built on big data processing alone, pulled out of the market altogether.
Content providers should weigh their options and make an educated decision regarding what approach to take. Compliance is not just about posting a note with terms and being done with it; the fun begins when requests or legal notes arrive.
For now, losing 10% of traffic is a better option, as far as I’m concerned. Five percent was from the UK, the rest is from the other 27 countries, including my homeland of Greece. (insert broken heart emoji.)
The “tear your business cards” article was parody, to emphasize the madness of GDPR.
Raymond Hackney says
I am not criticizing you for doing what you did, I understand where you are coming from.
Acro says
We all have opinions and positions that often differ.
I didn’t view it as criticism, this is just clarification on what’s going on.
Jonathan says
The USA will follow the EU lead, difficult to understand some of the arrogant comments. The USA economies of scale are a small % WTO The future will be about continents not countries
Block Europe says
I can outdo all of you. I am Canadian, I run several websites and my gf is from Europe. With the passing of this gdpr nonsense I broke up with my gf. #BlockEurope
Jose says
I am a domainer of the EU and we had to adapt to the new rules of Legal Notice and Privacy Policy when becoming President of the United States Mr. Donald Trump, I had to accept what most domainers who are republicans, Do not say anything because I can not be against a democratic decision of a country.
This GRDP is the fault of a US company that is the Facebook social network ……. and not of the EU domainers.
Jose says
Apologies I publish again last paragraph to write wrong the acronyms GDRP is because of a company of the USA that is the social network of Facebook ……. and not of the domainers of the EU.
tommy Butler says
Its a pity that european domainers are being hit with this. Totally get Theos post why he did it. Domaingang totally loved the banter of the site its sad this has happened.
Maybe its for the best and just maybe European domainers will focus more on Europe than the USA. When you look at the industry as hole its not looking good from USA side with hall of fame. Maybe it should change name hall of shame.
Maybe its time for European domainers to look at themselfs and see how good they really are in the industry instead hero woshipping american crowd.