Oh Holy Saint Bureaucratius.

Ah, the EU. As much as I love it (the Euro! free choice of where you want to live and work! no border controls when travelling! easy buying and selling of stuff!), sometimes the rules and regulations and bureaucratic bullshitty shenanigans really drive me crazy.

Most recent in this line: the new data protection laws. If you have subscribed to any newsletters, are registered in any forum or something similar, chances are you've already received at least a few emails telling you that privacy guidelines have been updated, or that you will need to confirm again that you want to receive the newsletter. That is due to the regulation coming into force on May 25.

So I, too, have been working on updating my privacy statement on the website (the German one is done, but I still need to do the English one) and making sure that everything is okay according to the new rules. Fortunately, there's very little that needs changing or updating on my site.

It's still a pain in the neck, and it still ate up a good chunk of time. Time that I'd rather have spent on some of my other ongoing projects, but oh, well, Saint Bureaucratius needs his worshipping time, right?

My bitching about this aside - I actually do think that the new rules are a good thing. They do require everyone handling personal data to make very clear what is handled, why, and for what purpose(s). I'm not sure it will actually help against unsolicited mails and newsletters (I have quite a few of those turn up, and I'm pretty sure I never handed them my mail address), but ah, one can hope. And if I've made you curious, you can read more about them here. Or have a youtube explainer video here.