Turns out it's a bad idea to ignore regulators enforcing the law.
Yes, but who exactly is processing personal data with zero revenue?
Startups?
_Zero_ revenue?
That's not a startup, that's a hobby.
Instagram was zero revenue when bought by Facebook. And Siri when acquired by Apple. I wouldn't describe it as a hobby.
I am pretty sure instagram had revenue, even if no profit.
It was a paid app, the money must have gone somewhere.
Instagram has never been a paid app.
oh, sorry I was thinking of whatsapp!
You're gonna be surprised at the massive number of pre-revenue venture backed startups then friend.
In that case it's the EU's way of telling you that your startup idea isn't that great. Basing a startup idea on illegal techniques is not a good idea. Snapchat could've succeeded without that data so there's no reason why startups cannot adapt.
Illegal techniques like... forgetting to disable Apache access.log or ever collecting the results of an HTML form.
Early-day Snapchat stored a lot of personal data (geolocation, application activity, personal info, and photos) before they made any money.
Hacker News itself? Every web forum? Every teenager who writes a webapp?