[Mod Note] GDPR consent for our EU and EEC members

[SuperSleeper]

Unfortunately, due to the "legal" requirements that have been implemented under the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), visitors to ApneaBoard.com and SleepFiles.com located in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA) will likely see a pop-up window asking for your permission to use your data while visiting these websites.  Of course, Apnea Board has a long-held privacy policy of never sharing your data with any outside entity.  But if you're a forum member from these areas, you will need to need to at least accept the "cookies" that keep you logged into your forum account.

We believe that these "requirements" hold no legal force over Apnea Board, which is based in the United States.   In fact, reading through the GDPR documents, our organization isn't even big enough to fall under these requirements.   But, due to Google and other non-governmental entities forcing websites to comply, we have implemented GDPR protections on ApneaBoard.com and SleepFiles.com.  If we did not do this, Google would punish us in search engine results and limit our ability to help offset our server costs using Adsense.  

So, I apologize to our EU and EEA forum members - we're essentially being forced to comply with the laws of other countries.  Welcome to the new world order, where national sovereignty and freedom of choice means little, and it's all about being a "compliant global citizen".  I personally believe that individual users should be trusted with their maintaining their own data security, and not be subjected to a complex and confusing government-approved "Nanny" system like GDPR.   This reeks of the same type of "control" that the "medical mafia" wants to exert over patients to prevent them from adjusting core settings on their own CPAP machines without approval from the so-called "experts".  Apnea Board continues to stand against this type of forced control, both medically and digitally.  But in this case, we're almost being forced to comply.

In this system not only must organizations carry out such changes, but they must adopt, test and maintain, and be prepared to demonstrate such compliance to regulators. It also brings an obligation to keep internal records of data protection activities;  the requirement to notify regulators of data breaches without undue delay (organizations must report breaches to supervisory authorities within 72 hours) and document the underlying facts, effects and remedial action taken; and they must appoint an official Data Protection Officer (that's me, by the way).   Well, THANK YOU so much, GDPR!  Like yeah, we've got unlimited funds and all the time in the world to comply with your stupid reporting "requirements".  But nonetheless, we're being forced into this if we want to stay relevant on the web.  I've got an attitude about this, can you tell?  

Anyway, the pop-up our EU & EEA members will see is going to look similar to the picture below:

Note:  we will keep this thread in the Main Forum for a while to ensure folks can see it.  After that, it will be moved into our Forum Account Help area. If anyone has comments or questions, please feel free to reply here in this thread.

[SuperSleeper]

The funny thing is, that Apnea Board already protects our members' data even beyond the requirements under this regulation in most areas.   We're far more concerned about our members' security and privacy than any EU bureaucrat.   But now, as some sort of servant or employee,  we have to "report" back to our "bosses" at the GDPR on what we're doing to comply with their edicts.
God I hate tyrants.  


... okay, I'll stop ranting for now..

[Cpapian]

I see this on a lot of websites now.

[srlevine1]

Use a VPN — damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!