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Impact of GDPR After One Year: A Look at the Evidence

Obtain the GDPR report, a privacy law implemented by the EU on May 25, 2018. A year post-enforcement, the evidence supports the notion that the law did not achieve its intended results, and the undesirable repercussions are profound.

Impact Analysis of GDPR After its First Year in Effect
Impact Analysis of GDPR After its First Year in Effect

Impact of GDPR After One Year: A Look at the Evidence

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In May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect in the European Union, marking a significant shift in data privacy laws. Here's a roundup of some key developments since then:

Online Controversies

  • A website called Ship Your Enemies GDPR (https://shipyourenemiesgdpr.com/) caught attention for its controversial approach to GDPR, although it is unclear if the website is still operational.

News Sites Inaccessible in Europe

  • More than 1,000 U.S. news sites are still unavailable in Europe, two months after GDPR took effect, as reported by NiemanLab on August 7, 2018 (https://www.niemanlab.org/2018/08/more-than-1000-u-s-news-sites-are-still-unavailable-in-europe-two-months-after-gdpr-took-effect/).

Speeches and Studies

  • James Dipple-Johnstone, Deputy Commissioner (Operations) of the Information Commissioner's Office, spoke at the CBI Cyber Security: Business Insight Conference on September 12, 2018.
  • A study titled "The short-run effects of GDPR on technology venture investment" was published by Jian Jia, Ginger Zhe Jin, and Liad Wagman on the VOX CEPR Policy Portal on January 7, 2019 (https://voxeu.org/article/short-run-effects-gdpr-technology-venture-investment). Another version of the same study was published on May 31, 2019 (http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3278912).
  • WhoTracks.Me published a blog post titled "GDPR - What happened?" on September 3, 2018 (https://whotracks.me/blog/gdpr-what-happened.html).

EU Member States' Compliance

  • By May 2019, 5 EU member states had not fully adopted the national laws to implement the GDPR.

Industry Reports

  • Merrill Corporation reported that GDPR burdens are hindering M&A transactions in the EMEA region, according to a survey conducted by the company on November 13, 2018.
  • PriceWaterhouseCoopers reported that GDPR budgets top $10 million for 40% of surveyed companies on December 9, 2017 (https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/library/general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr-budgets.html).

Regulatory Developments

  • The Wall Street Journal reported that European Privacy Regulators find their workload expanding along with their authority on April 12, 2019 (https://www.wsj.com/articles/european-privacy-regulators-find-their-workload-expands-along-with-authority-11555061402).
  • The Wall Street Journal also published an article titled "Beware the Big Tech Backlash" on December 19, 2018 (https://www.wsj.com/articles/beware-the-big-tech-backlash-11545227197).

Data on Inaccessible Websites

  • A dataset titled "Websites not available in the European Union after GDPR" was published by Joseph O'Connor on March 20, 2019 (https://data.verifiedjoseph.com/dataset/websites-not-available-eu-gdpr).

These developments highlight the ongoing challenges and adjustments businesses and news outlets face in complying with the GDPR, as well as the evolving role of regulators in enforcing these new data privacy laws.

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