Here’s how some sites are blocking all European traffic to meet 100% GDPR compliance

GDPR

This is the week that we’ll likely look back on and say, “wow, I’ve never seen more emails about privacy policy updates in my life.” Yes – most of us had to sift through a seemingly endless barrage of emails as companies around the world prepared for GDRP. In case you don’t know what GDRP is (but common, you do right?) here’s a quick rundown:

At its core, GDPR is a new set of rules designed to give EU citizens more control over their personal data. It aims to simplify the regulatory environment for business so both citizens and businesses in the European Union can fully benefit from the digital economy. (Source – ZDNet)

Of course no matter how many legal documents you update, it’s still pretty darn tricky to become 100% compliant…unless of course you were to just stop letting visitors from Europe visit your site…and that’s actually what some people are doing.

Blocking 500 million users is a serious thing. Still, I have found sites that implement the most secure way to comply with the new GDPR laws: Block all European users! Yes, it’s hard to believe that somebody takes such a drastic decision, but it’s happening. (Source – Apility Blog)

The article in the Apility blog goes on to teach users how to use Cloudflare and Apility to block all European traffic to your site, yes it definitely requires some IT chops but you certainly don’t have to be a programming guru to make it happen. While I think it’s a funny blog post to write, I honestly feel like this is more humor than reality. I can’t imagine many people are going to be blocking all traffic from Europe, that just seems like far too extreme of a solution to a problem that in many cases means just updating your privacy policy.

What do you think? Is blocking European traffic a new trend or just an silly overly dramatic reaction some people are going to make until they realize that they’re missing out on customers? I want to hear from you – comment and let your voice be heard!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton