Subj : Weekly nodelist report on noteworthy changes (113)
To   : Michiel van der Vlist
From : Matthias Hertzog
Date : Sat Apr 24 2021 11:58:41

Hello Michiel!

 MV> I am not a lawyer, I will never be a lawyer and I don't even want to
 MV> be a lawyer. Having said that, it is my understanding that the scope
 MV> of the GDPR is not limited to organisations offering paid services, it
 MV> also applies to volunteer organisations where no money changes hands.
 MV> Such as Fidonet.

That's disputed, at least here in switzerland. Ahhhh, that whole GDPR thing
sucks.

 MH>> Down to the details, FidoNet in switzerland is not:
 MH>> - Having an office in the EU area
 MH>> - Not having EU residents as clients
 MV> How about net 303? The Hrusca's are from Romenia. They are EU
 MV> citzens...

.... but swiss residents. And that matters. It's a matter of geographic
location and not citizenship.

 MH>> Therefore, GDPR does not apply to FidoNet Region 2:30.
 MV> Are you sure? Have you asked a lawyer?

I've done the DGPR compliance on my previous job, so yes, i've asked
a lawyer, even several of them. Instead of better answers i've got
more questions. As long as there are no cases in switzerland, we have
no real point of reference. We have a lot of opinions, but even among
the swiss lawyers, the opinions are "controversial", to say it a nice way.

As one consequence of GDPR, we had to cancel the contracts with all our
EU clients, but that's another story. I better don't tell more about this
here, or i might need a lawyer by myself. Ooops!

I was lucky enough to leave the company before the thing got hot, but
as far as i've heard from my successor, nothing happened so far.

A good friend of mine is specialized in exactly these things, but i don't
want to bother her with FidoNet, as she's not working for free. (In fact,
she owes me a favour, but i don't want to waste that for this non-issue).

Matthias
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