§ Connectivity

Data protection / GDPR

also called GDPR · data privacy law

Rules, notably the EU's, governing how personal data is collected and used.

Right, in plain English

These are the rules, the EU's GDPR being the famous one, governing how personal data about people is collected, stored and used. If you run anything online that handles data about people in a regulated region, you have to follow those rules wherever you personally are. Your own location does not get you off the hook; what matters is where the people whose data you hold are based.

Someone running a newsletter and a small online shop from wherever they happen to be collects email addresses and details from subscribers in Europe. Because those people are covered by the EU rules, the business has to handle their data by that standard, even though the owner is sitting on the other side of the world.

Why it matters

Nomads running online businesses must comply when handling data of people in regulated regions, wherever they themselves are.

← every term in the glossary