Ask HN: YC lawyers, what are you doing about GDPR?

41 points by rdlecler1 8y ago ↗ HN

I recognize that people have asked if HN is GDPR compliant, but I haven't seen an official or unofficial response. Given that HN is a marketing tool for YC, that YC has LPs from Europe as well as portfolio companies, and HN is used in the application process, I think the HN community would interested to understand how you'll be dealing with this and what you're recommending to your portfolio companies as it would be helpful for many of us that don't have the resources you do.

6 comments

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weiyi 8y ago ↗

interesting

nathanaldensr 8y ago ↗

There are a lot of interesting questions (only some with answers) on Reddit here: https://www.reddit.com/r/gdpr

I've had fun reading how scared all the adtech companies and content farms are.

chasb 8y ago ↗

(Just a heads up "Ask HN" generally refers to asking the community, not YC itself. I don't think the YC legal team reads this.)

I'm a lawyer, YC alum, and have a CIPP/E cert. I took a crack at the "Does GDPR apply to HN?" question here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16615351

The answer is "probably not" because HN is neither established in the EU nor do they target the EU specifically. Maybe there are facts I don't know, but YC itself is also probably out of scope (read more here: https://gdpr-info.eu/art-3-gdpr/)

I'm also CEO of Aptible. We make a SaaS platform (Gridiron) that a bunch of YC companies are using for GDPR prep.

rdlecler1 8y ago ↗

It seems that it didn’t have to be targeting specifically.... given what I’ve read I still think that insofar as they’re investing in European companies and have European LPs, then they’d be exposed.

[deleted] 8y ago ↗

(comment deleted)

icebraining 8y ago ↗

How is HN used in the application process?