Today is the day General Data Protection Regulation goes into effect. GDPR is a European privacy law, which is aimed at protecting the private information of its citizens. Any business that collects any of the information from EU citizens is subject to this law.
We collect information from EU citizens.
As the result of this, we have to make sure that we are compliant with GDPR regulation. One of the consequences of this is that we have to ask you to resign up for the newsletter. It should be a flawless, easy process, but right now it is breaking down at the seams. We are trying to put out this fire. Please be patient with us.
A little bit about privacy and your rights: in the top menu of the website, you will see a link called privacy policy. It lays out basic information we collect and what we do with it. When you comment on the blog, for example, we have to collect and retain a little bit of information, such as the name under which you choose to comment. Typically nothing is done with this information, but we still have to disclose that we do this. We want you to be aware that we are doing this.
We know that this is a long process, and we apologize for the inconvenience. The alternative would be to shut down the comment section and newsletter, and we don’t want to do that.
Update: there are now three of us sorting the email. We have a large email list, over 18,000 subscribers, and this is a bit of a nightmares. No worries, we will get all of you taken care of. Innkeeper will resume as soon as we dug ourselves out.
I was trying to figure out how to ask about The Innkeeper without sounding ungrateful…
No luck.
Innkeeper?? Please? Pretty, pretty please?
Friday dose of Inkeeper please??? We are in withdrawal 😆
+1, ungrateful wench that I am.
Not until we stabbed this GDPR Compliance dragon to death. 🙂 We are getting on it, though.
I have a sword you can borrow.
GDPR is turning out to be nothing but a God Damned Public Relations nightmare…
… and it’s delaying Innkeeper!
When I first read the blog title, I thought “goddamn PR”.
Just use Hugh’s sword 🙂
Its a complete pain. Delaying Innkeeper, cluttering up my inbox with lots of emails and causing havoc at work as we have to contact lots of patients.
Lots of the companies are just group emailing and telling us they have a new policy and I don’t have to do anything including some of the news letters. Don’t know if that would make it easier for you or not. Good luck ??
Better yet, use Maud’s ?
Erm…. that did not work out the way I thought I would…..excuse me while I figure out how to fix…..
Get Kate’s sword; it’s specialized for slaying forces of evil. Vampires and such. Demonic laws should be within it’s purview.
Hugh would have attacked GDPR with the Iron Dogs…
Can you give us directions for where to sign back up for the Newsletter and other posts?
I did it so long ago that I’ve forgotten where to look!
Thanks!
There you go: https://ilona-andrews.com/newsletter/
You can skip me, I don’t care what info you collect on me. Anything to speed the process.
::cries::
You can do it! I have faith. When you’re done you can go to a “rage room” and bang the crap out of a computer ? at the room. It may make you feel better to relieve stress later. Good luck! Now, back to Bar review I go…?
Thanks for taking our privacy seriously. I could think of nothing worse if you banned us Europeans. The LA Times did 🙁
+1
Take your time and do it right while I would certainly enjoy an installment of innkeeper I can wait untill you are ready to give it to us
Thank you for all your hard work and the many hours of reading pleasure you give us.
Good luck!
I have a blessed Athame….you’re welcome to use it!
When I read about this in the news my thought process went something along the lines of, “Oh that sounds like a pain for a bunch of people. Good thing it won’t affect me too much since the US doesn’t particularly care what happens to my info”. But now it has inconvenienced the Authorlords and delayed Inkeeper! It’s a disaster!
+1!!!!!!!!!!!!
How about whimpering and begging? Crying? Pleading? Well, worth a try. I have always wanted to visit Europe, I just never thought it would be for legal reasons…. Sigh, I am grateful you have an EU audience, the more the merrier. I hope the issue doesn’t eat up your holiday weekend and thank you for the snippets no matter when we get them.
Tried to resign up – told I was already subscribing. Do I need to wait and redo this or am I ok ??
Here is a possible work around. I got the same message. Decided to update my information which is choice it gave me up receipt of message. Doing it that way worked. Received confirmation email.
Thanks Gail, Dis this and I think it worked – fingers crossed ?
Did not dis!!!?
Thanks.
Had the same problem and I think this worked since I got the update link.
I tried to sign up again and was told the same. I did the update option and crossed my fingers. I figure that if it did not work I would wait a week to see if I got notifications before trying again.
this is nothing compared to what we ask (demand?) of you.
Hugs. GDPR is probably a good idea in the long run, but it is surely causing trouble now.
Yeah, if you live in EU (at least here in Sweden) you’ll have gotten regular mail and/or e-mail from EVERY company, bank or goverment branch you have ever been in contact with in the past weeks…
And for us working for a goverment agency it’s been crazy how much of the daily work is affected, even if you work with “normal” buracracy and not IT. Like my deparment has been tying to figure out if we can stil work our cases in the same way… How are we supposed to share information clients tell one part of the agency without using now forbidden things like case numbers? (because we have an obligation to share information within the goverment agency TOO, you should not have to call both, say housing allwance and child allowance with the same info, say for example if you have split upp and one of you have the children more. So now we have two directives that seemingly contradict eachother, at least until we figure out the technical solution, hopefully soon..)
The number of emails about GDP I’ve had this week make my head spin but it has been handy to remove myself from so many mailing lists. That said the UK University I work for is also sending contradictory advice on what we should do and I don’t even have that many students to deal with- boy is it a headache.
So sympathy and hugs to the Authorlords cos nothing else can help them and prayers to all of the gods for an innkeeper update when they manage to crawl out of the GDP mess as we of the BDH are impatient little rascals and need our fix ……..(sobs quietly so as not to disturb the Authorlords)
Erm that should be the GDPR- thanks auto-correct ? I obviously should be an economist rather than a museum collections manager!
But a museum collections manager sounds like so much more fun!
Theoretically yes but I left work at 8.30pm tonight having been there since 8.30pm doing wretched admin! Still its been fun for the past fee months working on new Pacific displays of historic and contemporary material so I shouldn’t complain ? now it’s payback for admin avoidance!
Wow…our government has just spent hundreds of millions making sure information can be shared across departments. A number of incidents relating to child protection hit the news recently where one department couldn’t access another’s records and a toddler was seriously hurt… So we are doing the opposite, at least within certain government departments.
Just re-upped and had no problems.
I’m in the process of signing up and I don’t know what the “Status” box is for.
Thank you for all that you do for us and I’m looking forward to getting both newsletters!
LauraR did you find out what Status was/is? I entered “alive”
Hahaha! I haven’t heard from the author lords. I just left it blank, I like to be a mystery…
Status:
Active Hoard Member
Oh, I shoulda done that. Dang it.
LauraR, when I updated my preferences the Status field said Active. I hope that means I am finally re-signed up for the Newsletters.
Anne in Virginia
Whoops I put married but the horde would have been good
I put BHD for status
Crass commercial announcement… Putting together a tour of hell, to cheer on the hard-working demons and imps assigned to the torment of such evil souls as The Man Who Invented Autocorrect, the Creature Who Developed The Receptionist-Replacing Phone Robot, and everyone’s favorite target for the fires of eternal torment (drum roll pul-leeze); Whatever Moron Is Frustrating The AuthorLords This Week.
Sign me up. I’ll bring snowballs.
I’m so there!
Same for me Sarah Miller.
BDH
I tried to follow the instructions, filled in all the required fields, hit Submit and it just sat there. Tried again, same result. I might have signed up several times for all I can tell so I’ll save the original email and try again later. What a nuisance for you all to deal with. We’d rather have Innkeeper and I know you would too. Some times all this new fangled Technology is an aggravating and mixed blessing.
Anne in Virginia
Hi Anne,
This also happened to me. I tried it again a few minutes ago, and followed these steps to be fully subscribed:
1 – Signed up again, received message already subscribed
2 – Clicked on the link to Update My Preferences and waited for email
3 – Clicked on the link in the email, and entered the missing information
4 – Submitted the update successfully!
Sherri, I tried it your way and IT WORKED. Whew. Thanks for the suggestion.
Anne in Virginia
Sherri,
You won an ARC of Iron and Magic. Email us through the contact form and I will get you the file. For you are awesome and might have saved us a ton of work.
All Hail Sherri!
Wonderful Sherri and Ilona! It’s so great to witness goodness ?
Woo-hoo Sherri! Great job! The Horde looks out for everyone. ?
The update workaround worked on my PC! Yay!
I didn’t see the update link on my phone. So if we all find a device where we get the update link we will hopefully save the AL some time and get Innkeeper soon *Pretty Please*
OK, stupid me, I don’t remember how I signed up. Haven’t I always been here. May I humbly have some instructions so I can then say AHA! now I remember how to do this?
Thank you …anyone …someone.
Think I got it… never mind. sigh…
Seemed to work for me.
While I think the new rules are a good idea, I am a bit concerned that the volume of emails explaining all of the new policies may finally break the internet 🙂
Huh? Should I wait or what is required to remain BDH in good standing!! I am in NY does this matter? And I not tech savvy. Really ?.
Need simple instructions.
Thank you , and watched countdown change today , it was kind of fun.
You just need to sign up again if you want to keep receiving the newsletter 😉
Went in to re-subscribe to the newsletter, and the Captcha wasn’t working on my phone*.
I was briefly concerned that I might be a robot.
Luckily, retried, and can confirm that according to the internet, I am not a robot.
*problem appears to be my phone, not website related. My phone is probably a robot.
Just make sure is no AI. One Ultron was enough, thank you ?
Thanks for making me laugh.
Think about us in the UK/Europe. Most of the emails I seem to be getting are about asking me to confirm I want the emails. And this is from firms which have a clear unsubscribe in their emails. Think overall this is a total farce
The most farcical aspect is how businesses are expected to save as little data as possible. AND keep data super duper crazy safe from being stolen or hacked. But ALSO make it super backed-up in a million places so it can’t be lost. AND super accessible at a moment’s notice to users who want to see their data. It’s ridiculous. You can ask people to make data safe and locked-up OR ask them to back it up and make it accessible – but asking for both, even from small business owners who literally collect no more than names and email addresses, is so … I really have no words for how stupid it is. The GDPR just continues the trend of coddling the general public and assuming people are too dumb to follow simple instructions or use an unsubscribe button.
I thought the GDPR thing started because Google/Facebook was taking people’s info and making money off it. I like the restrictions (if there are actually any) but the process is sloppy.
You are right mostly. It is about companies peddling personal information.
It’s not really about subscribing or unsubscripting (as that is choice and I agree with you sentiment) it’s about how some companies coerce people to give away personal data which is sold for profit. Anyway, looks like Fb and google will get their €3.7bn comeuppance as they are in breach. Ouchies.
I hope they actually have to pay it.
The EU always needs money, so I guess they have to pay …
By the way I’m resigning subscriptions already since Januar soooo – the craziest one was that I had to do it for every school notification for all 4 children too, as the didn’t store it per parent but per child …
Someone – Mark Twain or P.T. Barnum? – once said that no one has ever gone broke underestimating the intelligence of the general public. So possibly this only applies to the American general public, and not the European. I kind of doubt it though.
My private information (and I mean *really* private information, including some medical and financial information) got sent to the wrong people accidentally because somebody in local government sent an (unencrypted!) database to the wrong address. (Probably one line down in their address book or something.)
Anything that forces government, insurance companies, etc. to at least encrypt and password protect databases containing private information is a plus for me. I gladly suffer the inconvenience if it helps. (But that’s a big “if”, I know!)
+1 Karen!
I think I did it .I updated my preferences , didn’t change anything but it said I was updated . I hope this works . Will check later.
Never heard of GDPR?
Sorry it’s a pain for you, but as an EU consumer, it’s a good thing. Once we’ve got past the several million emails that read like pleas for a dying relationship (yes, we are going to say goodbye, company I bought flooring from 8 years ago).
“…emails that read like pleas for a dying relationship…” made me snort laugh -hilarious!
This is so clever; it’s my new favorite comment!
? First Place Award?
I am sure this is causing loads of frustration but hopefully it is a one time deal and then general maintenance will be straightforward.
From the perspective of a user of your website, I find it reassuring that you are taking these rules seriously. It highlights your professionalism and ethics . Thank you
+1
Just re-read Wildfire. So good. Laughed. Cried. Sighed with relief. What a great story.
+1
Yeah following the law, always so much fun
Well. After all these years of being a fan, I am damn embarrassed to just find out that you have a newsletter. I will go sign up now….
I just find it really funny the amount of things I had signed up for that i forgot… its like oh yeah, let me not re-up for that! XD (Ireland)
And all the warnings we are getting about scammers using this to get people to give up their personal details re-signing up….
GDPR is a nightmare. I work for a large international company and a team has been working on it for months. It’s a headache for you all and smaller folks too. I don’t mind signing up again and again for your newsletter. Whatever it takes.
Good luck. May the force be with you.
I’m not certain if this is relevant, but the privacy policy link is only available if the site is viewed with javascript enabled. Without javascript, the top level menu is not shown. Assuming I can post this comment, you have collected my data without making the policy available to me. In that case, it should perhaps be on the other menu.
Not trying to slow you down, just trying to make sure your t’s are crossed…
Huh, you’re right. Although, if you go to the end of the site where you can subscribe to the Newsletter and/or the Blog you’ll find a link to the privacy policy. I guess that’s enough…
Or is it? GDPR truly is a nightmare.
Test
So I’ve spent 10 minutes writing you a nice post of RGPD (as I’m the reference for my division, company* in France), but the post didn’t go through….
ARghhhhh….
Anyway just to tell you that lots of companies went overboard.
If you only have in your newsletter recipients people who have subscribed via your website, you didn’t really need to ask them to resubscribe.
This step is necessary for company who have added email addresses to their newsletter without have the explicit consent from the recipient.
……
you seem to have a character limit now? My comments are not posting correctly…
Hopefully: if you have a question on the subject, I can help you or ask our DPO for you.
Cheers!
Laurence
The main points for the RGPD is that you need to inform the person who’s giving their info what you’re going to use it for and inform them who they can contact, to, at any time, change or delete their info.
(having a nice glass(es) of red wine to start the weekend, was not the best idea when comments don’t want to post!!!)
If I get another GDPR email, I think I’ll scream! (In the UK).
But, to rub salt in the wound, I’m having to add to the annoyance myself! As I run my own business (making bespoke chocolates), I’m having to send out these emails to my own newsletter subscribers.
Aaarrgghhhh!!
I am so with you on the emails, also from the UK. Am about ready to crawl into a hole and wait for it all to blow over
Chocolate?
You did say chocolate….
You did…
how DO I sign up, or browse your menu of delights? mmmmm, choc…o…late…….
However Surfergirl, I now want to sign up for your emails…
Thank you very much! Unfortunately, due to regulations I can only sell to UK peeps, but if anyone would like to look, here’s my website (still a work in progress!) – http://www.handmadechocolates.weebly.com
?
+1
Do you create raspberry centres with dark chocolate enrobing them? If so, TALK TO ME!
I certainly do – made with double cream, sugar, and tangy freeze-dried raspberry powder, all covered in lovely dark chocolate. Mmmmmm ….
Succeded with only one of the two addresses I suscribed in the past.
The confirmation email for updating doesn’t show in my inbox nor in my spam…
I’ll retry later ??
I like xkcd’s take on GDPR
https://xkcd.com/1998/
Thanks for the tip, that was hilarious 🙂
😀 Love it!
I have been getting an increasing amount of emails about this. I must admit that for a lot of them I took the opportunity to ‘opt out’. But yours is a keeper 🙂
As a Brit who handles volunteer details for work, I feel your pain!! I hope you can get it all sorted without full on migraines all around!!
I think I successfully navigated the process. Wishing you quick progress in the entire process.
I don’t think you do need us to sign up again – in signing up to receive your news previously we have agreed that you can have our data for the purposes of sending us news about your writing – that hasn’t changed. If you publish a fair processing statement – this is the data we collect, this is what we use it for, we don’t give your data to anyone else – then we just continue as normal. There was a magazine article in this on BBC TV this morning – there’s a lot of over reaction to this. Chill.
Exacly. You have to inform us but you can proces the data as it was. I work with GDPR and lasy weeks were hard so I wanted some me time in internet and to read something nice bit wherever I look ther is GDPR.
As a fan living in the EU, thank you for the email. I love your books, newsletters and blog so I appreciate the amount of extra work this legislation has caused you. Hope you all get a rest at some point.
Read everything in your blog but don’t ever comment because everybody else says it all so well. But just have to say I should have read the comments before I resubscribed because I put my status as bored ( meaning bored with the whole GDPR thing) and am now sat here laughing my head off!!! I think you and all your fans are amazing.
Lol ?
Just a fyi–I just signed up for your newsletter (1st time subscriber) and the process worked flawlessly.
Good luck with the rest.
Sorry as a new commenter I didn’t realise it would come up with the name I put in the box, duh!!! If I’ve stepped on anybodies toes, please accept my apologies and I promise not to do it again ?
Welcome to the BDH!
(Book Devouring Hoard)
Good luck! That is serious business and the fine is steep if you don’t comply. I can wait for innkeeper until that is sorted out!!!
Is it only me or did the countdown counter disappear for other people? At first there was a box that said something like 502 Bad “something starting with an S” and then it was just the book cover background. Does this have to do with anything the GDPR, or did your site just say “I’m done I’m not doing anymore”? Also I have shovels you can borrow to dig through all the emails or just some old gasoline I need to get rid of you can just light it all on fire and be done with it. ??
I’m getting that error too. “502 Bad Gateway, nginx”.
Me too, although, as you can see, it does’t seem to inhibit one’s ability to read and reply.
What does Status refer to please? Should it say Active as one person mentioned or is it ok to be blank?
Was considering putting BDH Member ?
I also use mailchimp for my businesses monthly newsletter.
Anything managed by Yahoo (att, sbcglobal, aol, yahoo, etc) is all bouncing so none of my stuff is delivering.
So if it’s not GDPR, it’s something else too. I wasted 4 days trying to get it to work, and nada. Not only can I not get my own newsletter, my number 1 fan: dad, can’t either. (And he’s so sad over it too! ) ??
So I feel your pain. So I’m going to have to unsubscribe everyone. *sighs*
Writing from the UK. The GDPR has it’s heart in the right place – protecting privacy – but I get the feeling the EU was a bit too enthusiastic with it. As an IT guy I’d have liked to see it implemented in stages rather than dropping the whole rock on everyone in one go.
Thank you, Ilona Andrews, for taking our privacy seriously. I do miss Innkeeper as this is Friday night but mayhaps it will be better to enjoy during the coming rains…. Sat thru We’d. Sigh.
On a positive note, I see accurweather has storm Alberto missing Texas over this Memorial Day holiday. Good news for you all as you just recovered from flooding.
Every other newsletter I get (SO MANY) has just had a link that took me to an opt in page, rather than having to resubscribe. I have no idea now if I’m in or out. Argh!
Wahhh. I want my Innkeeper////
OK. Tried Sherri’s method and looks like it worked. Now, back to reading.
Hopefully I got both the newsletter and blog taken care of. The blog will be easy, since I’ll get an email tomorrow about this post, if it worked.
Newsletter doesn’t come as often, though. Will you guys send a test newsletter and let us know it was sent so we can tell if it worked? In a couple of days maybe?
(Sorry if this is a repeat request. I didn’t scroll through the other comments. )
Oh dear, how long do we have to wait?
I can’t help it, I refresh, do a little work and then refresh. It’s become disturbing. I suppose junkies feel this way.
Take your time, get it right the first time. After all, if you don’t make sure the dragon is dead to begin with, you’ll have to fight it all over again when it recovers…twice as mean and twice as angry. While I do want my weekly installment of Innkeeper, I’d rather you take care of all your other business so that you can do Innkeeper with a clear head and fewer distractions to derail your train of thought.
*technically* the GDPR went into effect *two years ago*… It’s just nobody cared until today because the grade period ends today…
So everybody is a bit panicky…
Cry. I want Maude.
+1
18,000! That is amazing and wonderful. Nice to be so popular. And you two deserve it all. You work so hard to give us great stories and keep us happy. Sorry this extra task has ended up in your laps. Hope you find time to enjoy the Memorial Day weekend.
So about trip 15 to the blog to check for innkeeper I recognise I have a problem. I know I am not alone in this, but guys, we are SCREWED when they decide to retire.
Don’t make me have to wash out your mouth with soap. We’ll track them down like my cats do when I’ve been away and stare accusingly.
?
With 18,000 BDH members, we can stare in shifts 24/7/365.
Fortunately, IA are young people and have DECADES to entertain us. It will be nice for them when they can leave Texas and its weird flora, but I’m hoping that is years in the future.
I wouldn’t really classify Texas Flora as weird. Most of it is pretty common throughout the south or southwest of the US. Our AL live in Central Texas (or just a bit south of those parts) where there’s Cypress and Oak trees, rolling hills, etc.
In spring we get Flowering Red Bud, Mountain Laurel, Bluebonnets and over 5000 other species of wildflowers growing in vacant fields, and along roadways. It’s more the weather/temperature that will do you in. ^_^
I moved to Tx from up north. And while I don’t have hay fever problems, the many, many, many people I meet (including years as a respiratory therapist) show me pretty convincingly Texas air is bad. It may not be the pollen; there are a lot of orange days and at least some of that could be the pollution.
BLASPHEMER! Speak not your evil!
No talk of retirement or they might get ideas!
So true, so true.
…yeah, because of course you didn’t have anything else in the works for the next couple of days right? Right??
(pat, pat) It’ll all be okay, just breath, maybe have a few adult beverages, turn on some heavy metal music and kill some video game monsters….wait that’s my stress relief method. Ummm, well then. ;P
Make sure to take breaks for your sanity and remember: You Got This!!
How do we resign for everything? I can’t lose my ilona!!
That’s ok my small offsiders are waiting patiently and I am sorting the mess that is my inbox. Big hugs
Take your time. It sounds like a big job. Understand why you have to do this process and cover all the legal requirements. The final outcome is everyone will be able to read the news letter, blog and keep up with what s going on and especially your stories. Take care and don’t over fo it
Need some help?
This human is part of the BDH!!!
<3
Lol, Hi human.
+1 ?
Wow! I just assumed the software would manage the confirmations. Sorry to hear you have a massive project, instead! Sending good thoughts.
Honestly, the people who have signed up to your newsletter actively did so to start with – I get why you’re reconsenting the base as a protective measure (most lawyers will take the cautious approach and advise you to do so) but really – from a UK regulator perspective. – as long as you’ve sorted your privacy notice (which you have) you should be ok. I say this as a lawyer who has been living and breathing the GDPR for the past 7 months. It is not designed to get authors sharing the joy of their work – it’s to bring to heel the Facebook’s and Google’s and huge data sourcing and exploitation industries of this world.
Yep, what I said.
Agreed. This was the advice I have received, too. If you’re transparent about what data you hold, and what you do with it, and have the facility for people to unsubscribe this should not be a big nightmare for you.
This is the idea behind the law probably. In real life everyone who works with personal data like the local Soccer club has to fulfill this and the local regulation too. I wouldn’t have a problem with this if people took the same care whith their babble everywhere.
So I feel sorry for you Ilona.
I’m glad to know this, because I’ve been running into the GDPR from the genealogy projects standpoint. There have been major information sources for this, developed these last fifteen to twenty years, that are folding their tents and going away due to GDPR. Project managers are shrieking and leaving their projects, because they are afraid of GDPR.
I have a great deal of sympathy for you who have been living and breathing GDPR. I’m still scared of it and think I don’t understand it.
Sorry you have had all this extra work- just want to keep on enjoying your newsletters and stories!
Sorry about the extra work I would be banging my head against the walls
Now I feel guilty living in France giving you all this extra work….
Still going to resing up for the news letter. Love you guys too much!
Stay strong!
The process has glitches. I follow every step and it won’t let me update my profile. Kept saying email already exists.
I had the same message. I am hoping that I am all set and the process happened with my original click.
At the bottom of the newsletter there should be a link to update your subscription preferences. That should take you to the page you need and bypass the “already signed up” part.
Thank you. Other websites (not mom-and-pop operations either) have just given up and blocked everyone logging in from Europe.
Basically, it’s “we know you’ve been reading us faithfully for years, now that some of you might block some advertisers, take a hike.”
Unfortunately, I know all too well this GDPR nightmare (working in an IT department of a big company) we are working on this specific nightmare every day since a few months… I’m a little sick of it…
Non Illigitimatum Carborundum.
Why are you wasting your time complying with a European law? Is your server located in Europe or something? If it is move your newsletter to a server in a different country that’s not part of the GDPR. As a courtesy to your European subscribers you can add a line to your sign up page stating your server isn’t located in Europe and therefore not subject to the GDPR. Politicians seem to forget that there’s this thing called sovereignty and just because they wave their magic wands doesn’t mean people outside their jurisdiction have to obey.
It’s the fact they have readers based in the EU — they have to comply
Your “solution” sounds worse than the current ‘fix’.
The GDPR has a territorial reach meaning the rules follow the data, instead of being just limited to just the EU territory. In other words, this applies to US companies that are not located in the EU but do offer goods or services to EU citizens or monitor the behaviors of EU citizens. These companies must be in compliance with GDPR rules on the data privacy of these individuals.
Because the EU decided to make the fines large enough to make a lawyer’s full retirement fund covered by just one successful lawsuit against any minor website, and allows anyone to file claims for any data breach for even non-material damages such as anxiety, with the only exemption by being “not in any way responsible” for the damage.
Even if ultimately found to have no jurisdiction, the cost of fighting GPDR cases will undoubtedly run into the billions of dollars for US firms alone (probably already surpassed that in just IT costs, and will be more than redoubled in legal costs).
This is what a great many people who do genealogy are afraid of.
So, what you’re saying Kevin Neuf, is that just because the USA creates certain laws that might impact on how people interact over the internet, it doesn’t mean that anyone else in the world outside of the USA should be affected by them.
Coz, you know, sovereignty.
For example – DMCA or any other type of copyright law. Just because someone living in the USA creates some form of creative product on the internet doesn’t mean that anyone outside the USA should be subject to the DMCA, therefore anyone who does not live in the USA can pilfer USA citizen’s creative products at will and without any regard to consequences. Because there aren’t any. Coz sovereignty.
Is that what you’re saying?
Well hey, all those years spent ‘pirating’ American movies and tv shows has just been officially sanctioned as ok by Kevin Neuf.
Looks like all those American legal eagles trying to chase down non-USA content ‘pirates’ will have to back down now. Coz sovereignty.
Thanks Kevin Neuf. Ob
😀
(Kevin – P.S. – I might be wrong, but I don’t think your favorite author is going to be happy with the suggestion that people outside the USA can pilfer her work without providing her with monetary compensation.)
In all honesty Americas interpretation of copyright can be a bit pushy. I certainly believe if someone does the work, that work is their property be it books, engineering creating an object etc but are you aware that an American medical company tried to copyright strands of human DNA, not their interpretation of it but the actual DNA everyone caries!
In regards to the data protection I admit to being a bit cynical, I think it’s less to make web users more secure and more to make them think they are secure so they keep putting out information for those lovely commercial companies to use.
My unwanted advice forget complicated data protection if you don’t want them using private data don’t put it out there. In the end you have to decide if the services offered are worth the info you are giving up. Of course Innkeeper is worth the basic info requested.
Finally a scary thought how many of you have applied for a job on one of those agency websites. You don’t now the company name so you can’t go directly to them or verify the are real but you still give them your name, contact details, date of birth and brief life history. You do it because you really need a job so lets just hope those agencies vet those perspective employers carefully.
Imagine how Kate and Curran would handle this. Curran would roar and Kate would stab it, stab it, kill, kill…done.
<3
I’m not taking any chances and signed up again, even if I’m just in Bastrop TX.
I got so excited when I saw an email from Ilona Andrews inc in my inbox! I opened hoping it was an update from the AuthorLords saying they had found a work around and that their cyber-suffering was over….
((sigh)) no such tidings. It was, however, a lovely invite for the AL’s Newsletter… with easy to follow instructions (All Hail Sherri!)
I have jumped through all the hoops and (Yay!) retain my BDH member status.
Stay strong AuthorLords (and AL Support Staff) the Hoard is here cheering you on! (And some of us have added you to our morning prayers).
Where are the instructions??? I will jump thru hoops if I have to. the problem is stumbling as ou jump thru them and therefore falling flat on you face!
Here’s Sherri M.’s workaround:
This also happened to me. I tried it again a few minutes ago, and followed these steps to be fully subscribed:
1 – Signed up again, received message already subscribed
2 – Clicked on the link to Update My Preferences and waited for email
3 – Clicked on the link in the email, and entered the missing information
4 – Submitted the update successfully!
If that doesn’t work, try clicking on the update preferences link at the bottom of the last newsletter you received.
?
Hey Jeanne,
In the earlier comments, Sherri
gave step-by-step directions for signing up for the newsletter.
I went the email invitation route and Sherri’s tutorial bolstered my confidence through the actually shorter-to-do-than-explain process.
What I did:
°Clicked the newsletter link
°Filled out the required fields ( you may want to leave out your last name)
° Returned to my inbox
°Opened the newly arrived Ilona Andrews inc email
°Completed the Confirmation Process in that email.
°BDH Status Retained!
I am not cyber-savy, so if I can do it, I am confident that you will manage just fine.
After I received and updated my preferences twice from your feed I no longer bothered to reply. Should save time doing it only once.
18,000
So U’ve heard this a few times
IT GLITCHED!!!
NObody wants to disconnect.
That’s it. That’s all the panic is about
Taking care of this is EVERYTHING to everybody
biting their nails scared sh**less, witless & mindless
that we will miss a … something
did I do it, did I get it right, Ahhh am I still on the list!
Even receiving this update after updating did not completely reassure me. Is there anybody out there, hello can U hear me, Am I gahhhh ack ack gasp
Okay, drama llama. We’re leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for you?
????
I’m so confused. I don’t know if I signed up for the newsletter or blog or both. Maybe I canceled whatever I had . I’m not computer knowledgeable & have an apple I-pad , not a real coumpter .The refresh button that gets mentioned for instance is something I don’t appear to have . Anyway, I want to be signed up for everything Ilona &Gorden offer . I DO NOT WANT TO BE LEFT OUT !!!
The refresh on the iPad (which is what I use) is the circle at the far right of the input line for Safari.
I feel as if the BDH is going on a new campaign and I didn’t get the message & now I am left home.
Am I blind, or did we lose the search feature with the website redesign? I wanted to reread the first chapter-ish of the next Kate novel, but I couldn’t remember where it was, so I looked for the search. Anyone find the search?
Found the text, but if you can get the search back, that would be great.
Since I’m one of those EU citizens I am extremely thankful for all the trouble you take on to keep us included… I would dearly miss being part of the BDH.
Me too ???
I know it is a pain in the backside, but as an EU citizen I am also grateful that my data is henceforth better protected. The amount of mails I received from companies that want to keep my data – and I had no idea why they had my data or how they got it!
Deep breaths, walk outside, play with the dog(s). Water something with the hose. Now, back into the fray. Works for me every time. I appreciate all you folks are doing to ensure that you stay connected to your followers while dealing with this international craziness. My inbox has been full for a week with different entities updating to comply. I sell online and 3 of the seller platforms have been going crazy with efforts to comply. The world has grown smaller and now when a butterfly flutters its wings in the Amazon, computer users in Texas scream in pain.
GDPR is making my inbox spam hell at the moment. Will happily consent to you having and keeping any data I may submit. Take your time, and hopefully the pain will lessen. Good luck
Remember to drink plenty of tasty liquids, and don’t forget food! You’ll need the strength to get through this!
So sorry you’re having to wrestle with this. I hope the positive changes GDPR forces on big data collectors will turn out to be worth the pain it has caused everyone else.
Your privacy policy looks good. I think I successfully re-subscribed to both the blog and newsletter, but it should be easy to check. If your next blog post doesn’t arrive in my email as usual, I’ll read it online here, subscribe again, and all will be well.
Does this also affect someone in the US accessing a website in the EU? After a search on a topic, I clicked on a link to the UK edition of the Huffington Post to read an article, but was directed to a page requesting “consent to set cookies on your device to use your search, location and browsing data to understand your interests and personalise and measure ads on our products. Oath will also provide personalised ads to you on our partners’ products.” Oath is the owner of Huff Post UK. I had the option to give general consent or I could do it entity by entity, which when I looked at the list, amounted to dozens. I opted not to continue. Is this GDPR-related?
GDPR applies to anyone in the EU, and companies processing their data or communicating with them. From what I’ve read, it does not apply to citizens of EU countries while they are in non-EU countries, and does apply to anyone physically within the EU regardless of their citizenship.
Most companies seem to be either applying compliance rules to everyone in their systems, or some news sites I’ve read about are blocking access to EU IP addresses because they haven’t sorted out compliance yet.
Thanks for the explanation. So many global influences!
Just curious, but does the GDPR mountain you’re digging yourselves out of look more like a Day Mountain or more of a Week Mountain? 😛
You know, the emoji with its tongue peeking out from the side is playful, but the one that came out, with its tongue straight out, looks so…rude!
(・へ・)
Ilona wrote that they have around 18.000 subscribers so… We’ll be really lucky to read new Inkeeper before June.
Ah.
You’re right…
(இ﹏இ`｡)
I…
Uh…
(;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)
I think GDPR stands for:
– Great Disaster Played Righ
– GoDamn PRogram
– Gigant Dumbass Plan for Retirement
– Great Disaster Played Rightaway
What do you think?
I’d like to add:
– Goddamn Delayer of Plans to Read
Hah!
Galactic Delayer of Precious Reading
You nailed it ❣
all of your replies on GDPR names sound right on the money.
all bad………………….
for us BDH……………
You can definitely count me in for the long haul.
Thank you both so very much for working as hard as you do on behalf of your readers. I understand it’s a new law requiring all of this, but I wish the process was going far easier for you.
I hate to add another voice in the “umm… I encountered a problem” column ? When I clicked on the links on each of the two email notifications I received (one for newsletter and the other for the blog, I believe), it prompted me to enter my email, etc to resubscribe. But when I clicked ‘submit’, I received an error message saying something to the effect of ‘this email address is already subscribed’. I figured I’d try again in a couple of days, to give MailChimp a chance to iron out its bugs, but I wanted to give you a heads-up as well.
Hang in there and again, thank you for working so hard to sort this out – some authors wouldn’t bother and I truly do appreciate that you’re both all over the issue, trying to get it fixed as quickly as you can. Thank you.
Once you get that message – you can see the link to update preferences. If you select that it will have you fill out the information and let you choose to receive emails, etc.
Thanks a lot Facebook
As an aside and possible distraction, I was on Kickstarter and saw a campaign for ” a quest for Yarnia” or similar that is an RPG board game involving yarn. I then found so many other yarn related stuff and I am not really a yarn person. I just thought some of y’all could use a distraction.
Hugh is coming! Hugh is coming! Less than 30 days now …… 🙂
??
Does everyone need to resubscribe if this is a European law? Shouldn’t it just effect EU peoples? Isn’t a disclaimer and the option to unsubscribe enough? I need me some innkeeper dang it.
Meanwhile, making my way through the first 9 KD books again. Finished #5 last night and was struck by how cynical, amoral, and callous Hugh can be. Yet, there’s that bit about him trying to heal his mentor and, essentially, grieving by his side for two days. Then there’s his attitude about women and sex – so many women that count for so little in his life. And he’s a smooth talker – like the voice of the devil whispering in Kate’s ear while they observe Curan at the banquet.
It’s funny how we each see things from our POV. I just re-read 5 as well and while Hugh is an ass I appreciated that he was a man that liked strong women and wanted a partner, not a doormat.
I interpret his attitude as wanting a grown woman who knows what she wants (even if it’s a one night stand) because he’s a grown man who knows what he wants.
But much of my opinion/attitude is because I have issues with people pretending to be things they’re not. I’m definitely of the opinion that being truthful with yourself about who you really are is half the battle of life.
and I love his response to Loraleigh when she tries to challenge Kate.
Michele
Spot on!
What I get from Hugh; in his purpose in interacting with KD is, they were both raised by Voron to be killers. They both were raised to “worship” & fear Roland.
How perfect if R’s warlord brought in (back) R’s child. What an alliance to rule under R. And if R needed KD dead well his warlord delivered her. Plus kd is totally kick-ass, take no prisoners, raised by the same
” “father” ” gorgous warlady who is rebelling. Way outside chance should she defeat R; he’s in the catbird seat. Hugh is pissed about being set aside by both V & R, who paid attention to K. Who is rejecting them. Why? What does she know, I think the seeds of his growth is in what she tells him. I think his need to make her hate him (aunt b, mishmar, curran trap) is in how much truth he knew was in it.
I agree that, where KD is concerned, he absolutely respects her for her skill and strength. He states in the next book that it is his goal to have her with him, fighting back to back.
I’ve got a different idea of Hugh wanting Kate “back to back”. I believe he may appreciate strong women for the challenge they represent, but his ultimate necessity is to dominate rather than participate in an equal relationship – because his desire for control demands more superiority than partnership. For example, Hugh said in Mishnar that he didn’t care if Kate submitted to him willingly or not, as long as she did. Hugh knows he’s weaker than Roland but he (wrongly imo) considers himself stronger than Kate… and through Kate he’ll consider himself also a bit above Roland in the wharped mindset of “I cannot defeat you but I’ve made your daughter my bitch”. It’s the main reason I’m not interested in his book at all… I know I’ll read it because is set in KD’s world and Elara seems a likable character, but otherwise I’ll skip Hugh.
Too soon? 🙂
Bwaaaha!ha!
??? Truth… ?… ?… ???
So I am SURE I am signed into the updated privacy. I can see the new comments and KNOW I have done the right things.
So why did I wake up at 3am worrying I have missed the next Innkeeper installment???
Aaarrggghhhh
Withdrawal symptom achieved ✔ Extra features may include: re-reading, asking yourself with disgusting frequency “why is it not online already?” the occasional bursts of sadness and the sense that your expectations are not the author’s priority… In conclusion: time to take care of your life because you’ve reached OCD level of insane dependence ?
Found the text, but if you can get the search back, that would be great.
it is Tuesday and I am feeling withdrawal symptoms, no innkeeper, re-read everything over the weekend.
Sorry ,I know you are working very hard to get back up and running.
I will keep checking. Hope I am still registered
Thank you , you don’t realize how much your Friday innkeeper stories are an essential part of my week. Really , thank you again
Has anyone – who has successfully completed the update on their subscription – gotten an email from the blog or newsletter recently?