GPDR: effect on US-based forums?

[GDPRdummy]

Hello. I am sorry for asking questions on this topic before contributing to the forum first. But I was wondering if the GPDR (General Data Protection Regulation) has any effect on a US-based forum located in California. The forum has members from all around the world thus including members located in the EU. I have read the territorial scope of the GDPR but I couldn't quite make out whether such a forum falls under this regulation or not.

The reason why this concerns me is that IF is falls under the GDPR, users can request information to be deleted from the forum. This will create big holes in conversations and threads which will render them useless. I would like to preserve all information because the majority of users often look back at older threads because they hold valuable information or give them ideas for their own work.

I believe that according to the GDPR's territorial scope (article 3.2a), any US-based forum falls under the regulation because a forum offers the service of providing information.

(1) Regulation applies to the processing of personal data in the context of the activities of an establishment of a controller or a processor in the Union, regardless of whether the processing takes place in the Union or not.

(2) This Regulation applies to the processing of personal data of data subjects who are in the Union by a controller or processor not established in the Union, where the processing activities are related to:

a) the offering of goods or services, irrespective of whether a payment of the data subject is required, to such data subjects in the Union; or

b) the monitoring of their behaviour as far as their behaviour takes place within the Union.​

(3) This Regulation applies to the processing of personal data by a controller not established in the Union, but in a place where Member State law applies by virtue of public international law.

Please, if you be so kind to help me. If you would like to know more about the situation, I can answer your questions.

Ps. I hope this thread is posted in the right section. Sorry if it's not.

 

[zddoodah]

I googled the term, and the GDPR appears to be an EU law. Whether a court in an EU country would purport to hold entities in non-EU countries accountable for compliance with the law is something only a lawyer in such a country is likely to be able to answer.