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WDRL 229

Photo Grid, Chrome Security UX, Dark Themes with CSS and about Resumes

Hi, I’m Anselm Hannemann, a freelance Frontend Developer and Engineering Manager. You can hire me. I wrote WDRL for 10 years and have a a Market Garden as a side-business.

Profile photo of the author, Anselm Hannemann

Hey,

This week I was really not sure whether to send the newsletter or wait at least until the beginning of the week. But I think I shouldn’t hold the content I found just because of a new law called “GDPR” that forces a lot of companies to send a lot of emails regarding updated privacy policies.

So here’s my take on this: I believe the law has huge potential to fix a lot of the problems we face today with privacy being exploited on purpose by companies making money with our data. Laws that at least require them to share these practices so that people could read it is good. Laws that hold them really accountable for data leaks like this very recent one where Amazon Alexa devices sent recorded private conversations to random contacts can only help the consumer. But noticably, this forces all of us to rethink our current best practices: Should we really put all our data to a variety of CDN and cloud providers or is one just enough? And if you ask companies whether they are able to provide a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) for you, many reply that they don’t or only do this for business accounts. All these replies are very interesting because they basically say “we don’t care about you little customer, only the big ones who have money and really require this contract get it”. And there’s a reason for this: A DPA holds service providers accountable to what they promised and it makes a difference to give that promise to millions or only a couple of customers.

I see privacy laws as a chance to proof that you and your company wants to do things right and not only go the easy way out without caring about customers. I know how hard it is for many people to understand and implement the legal requirements but let’s make the best out of it — for our own sake and our customers. We owe it to them.

Lastly, if you like what I do, please consider help me funding this letter financially. And now have a great Friday and weekend!

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Anselm