Businesses all around the world have been scrambling recently to
get compliant with the new European GDPR legislation, and there are still many
companies yet to become fully compliant. They are fast running out of time
before the European authorities begin catching up with them. For some companies
and websites, everything is up in the air at the moment, and there has been a
lot of chaos when it comes to people being geo-blocked from certain websites
that are non-compliant with the new European regulations.
Many companies are still unsure whether the GDPR applies to them,
and there is a lot of confusion surrounding whether or not the GDPR is actually
relevant to non-EU citizens. While definitive answers are yet to come from
official sources and geo-blocks are yet to be lifted, there are plenty of
things you can do to get around these restrictions and access the content that
has been barred by some U.S. sites.
#1: What is the GDPR?
If you haven’t yet heard about the GDPR, you’re pretty lucky! It
is something that has plagued the inbox of hundreds of millions of people
worldwide and, quite frankly, many of us are tired of hearing about it.
The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is a piece of
European legislation with a worldwide impact. It is a new law for protection of
data and privacy for all individuals residing within the EU. It does not matter
whether or not your website is based in the EU – if you have traffic coming
from and you are handling data on individuals from the EU, you must comply with
the GDPR or face the threat of hefty fines being brought by the European
authorities.
#2: Why Are U.S. Sites Geo-Blocking?
Simply to protect themselves. Many US-based sites are unaware as
to whether the GDPR applies to them, and in a bid to avoid serious proceedings
being brought by the European authorities, U.S. sites have started blocking traffic from EU countries.
When the GDPR came into force on May 25th, lots of major U.S.
news sites blocked access for EU visitors trying to avoid any culpability
should the GDPR apply to them. It’s better to be safe than sorry, and it’s not
hard to understand the reasoning behind the decisions to geo-block EU traffic
by certain major U.S. sites and news outlets.
It was simply a case of “allow EU visitors to continue accessing
the site and risk being hit with harsh fines from the European authorities”
versus “geo-block EU traffic until there has been some clarification as to
compliance and whether the GDPR applies to them.” In many cases, U.S. sites are
geo-blocking EU visitors until such a time that they have managed to catch up
with the GDPR and become compliant. However, others are holding out for an
official line from European authorities.
#3: Accessing Geo-Blocked Websites
Geo-blocking is nothing new;
it is a method that has been used by several countries (i.e., China, Russia and
North Korea) to block content that governments do not want their citizens
accessing. Sites such as YouTube and Facebook, for example, are geo-blocked in
a few of these countries in order to prevent citizens from accessing content
that potentially undermines their governments or regimes.
The classic way to access geo-blocked content is to use a VPN –
Virtual Private Network – a clever piece of software that connects you to a virtual
location and changes your IP address. When you enable a VPN, your IP changes to
that of the server you are connected to, and these servers are located
worldwide, from the U.S. to Canada to Australia and beyond.
SEE ALSO: How To Boost Your Blog Traffic
The VPN changes your IP and makes your web traffic look like it is
coming from the country to which you are connected. If a website cannot
identify your traffic as coming from a geo-blocked location, it will let you unblock all of its content.
In the wake of the GDPR, many U.S. websites have blocked traffic
from EU visitors until such a time as either i) the site becomes
GDPR-compliant, or ii) the European authorities officially clarify to whom GDPR
applies beyond what has already been said. Using a VPN, you can bypass
geo-blocked websites and continue to access their content.
0 comments:
Post a Comment