why was this downvoted? as far as I can see the claims of excessive burden have been equally vage, I don't see how this comment will lead into trolling
These arguments tend to be very circular. It goes something like this: GDPR is reasonable and easy to understand; if you're having trouble with it you are probably user hostile/don't understand it; you're having trouble with it which means you are user hostile/don't understand it; therefore your complaints are not legitimate; therefore GDPR is reasonable and easy to understand.
The same vague claims keep getting repeated, with absolutely nothing to back them up. Not even a "here's the problem with the law in our case" super fuzzy high level overview. It's always about the effort of adhering to the law without any discussion about why these companies are facing difficulties in the first place. Not the actual difficulty with implementing the law, just the vague effort they've put up with.
Hundreds of thousands of businesses have not had issue with the law. Suddenly some guy on HN with two "top tier" law firms at his back faces this unimaginably heavy burden and extreme obstacles when trying to adhere to the law. Sounds like a nightmare, in the sense that it never happened.
OP's post and the many others like it are just typical American business favoritism against any kind of regulation masquerading as a personal True Story (TM). I still remember when cookie warnings were "hard" to do and businesses actively implemented them in obviously shit ways, in bad faith with the regulations. It's so obviously contrived for a particular audience it's kind of absurd it immediately doesn't get flagged.
I am pretty sure that's what they're asking for. I didn't see a request for specific details. Just some high level details, rather than "we've had to spend so much money/time => clearly bad".
Heavens knows no one has ever been legally compelled to elaborate on a "super fuzzy high level overview" they previously volunteered.
Just point out the exact part of the law you guys are having a problem with. If you can't do that, it's because you're just making shit up.
> C) this story is just made up.
Was interpreted as being too hostile and uncivil.
If I'm not allowed to call out dishonesty then there's basically no point in discussing any subject.
I can't count the number of times I've posted factual, verifiable information — with sources — and been downvoted (or, often enough, downvoted, then voted back up, then down again, and so on) for my troubles, or the number of times I've seen such comments from others treated the same.
The most plausible explanation I can come up with is, "Your facts dispute my narrative, and we can't have that!"
EDIT: I'm not saying that's what's happening here, and I'm certainly not saying there's brigading or shilling going on (indeed, I think it's purely individual action), but this is a clear pattern, which I've reliably observed happening for years.
It doesn't even have to be on a controversial topic; I once linked to an explanation of a nuance of copyright law, of which the other participants in the thread were demonstrably ignorant. The extent of the response? Downvotes.
I'm going to guess what's happening here is a good amount of developers work for companies where GDPR would directly impact their revenue directly or indirectly (and most likely jobs as a whole). This is especially true for smaller "middle man" analytic firms and general web agencies. It pays to be anti-GDPR.