3

I am using a company which offers free blogging service wordpress.com. On that service, there are European blogs with post contacts (name, email, telephone) which is not erasable by the users.

Suppose a user goes to court to file a case against the blogger and blog service provider to fine them 200,00 euro. Who is violating the law according to the GDPR? Is it the blog service provider or the blogger?

Improve this question
5
  • Is it your blog you are concerned about or are you asking a more general question?
    – Steve
    May 2, 2018 at 21:35
  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because the question needs rather a lawyer than a webmaster skills to be answered properly
    – Evgeniy
    May 3, 2018 at 9:34
  • 3
    We can't give legal advice here, but the GDPR is very relevant to webmasters. Getting answers as to how it works and how it effects us would be a great use of this site.
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    May 3, 2018 at 9:51
  • 2
    I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that you can both be liable. If yourun the site, by GDPR definitions you are the controller. It is your responsibility to adhere to regulations. On a shared platform, the host would be a processor of data, and share some responsibility to ensure its users are adhering to GDPR, although I'm not certain as to what extent that applies.
    – CmdrSharp
    May 3, 2018 at 9:57
  • OK - which means wordpress.com or other's can get dragged into a court and be fined with amount of 200K Euro or higher if someone can prove them guilt. GDPR is dangerous it has to be well understood by webmasters else we might be dragging the whole company into risk.
    – YumYumYum
    May 3, 2018 at 10:25

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Unfortunately as with all things to do with the law until a case such as the one you are describing is tested in court there is no way to know which way it will go. Common sense states that if it is impossible to do something then you can't be punished for not doing it, however the law is rarely about common sense and more often than not is what a previous court has ruled should have happened to begin with (precedent).

The GDPR is very dangerous and should be something that all webmasters keep in their minds as it covers not just sites hosted in the EU but sites belonging to EU entities (business etc) which are hosted in other countries, websites owned by foreign entities which are hosted in the EU, as well as websites which can be accessed by EU citizens but which are hosted overseas and belong to businesses with no affiliation to the EU. Basically the only site that can't be affected by the GDPR is a website which blocks access to EU citizens and prevents them from uploading personal information and which does not collect any data or analytics on EU citizens.

This is one of those questions where it is most definitely worth while consulting a legal professional as they will be able to advise you the best on your course of action.

As a side note wordpress.com is such a large host with such a diverse and extensive customer base that it is highly unlikely that they have not run into this sort of situation before so it may also be worth while contacting Wordpress.com and asking them what they can suggest with regards to allowing your sites end users to be able to delete their personally identifyiable information. Wordpress also provides an information page on their support site for complying with the GDPR using Wordpress.com (https://en.support.wordpress.com/your-site-and-the-gdpr/)

Improve this answer
1
  • The law is written to cover sites that are accessed by EU citizens, but there is no way that the EU has jurisdiction if the site isn't owned or operated in the EU.
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Apr 10, 2019 at 10:43

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.