While I think it is reasonable to allow a user with several machines to be able to see what each of them is doing independently of the others if they so choose, I certainly agree that it would be good to be allowed to merge computers or, at the least, "hide" a computer so that its data is merged into a general user bucket. I say this because details of a machine may be usable to help to identify someone unambiguously by virtue of the name given to the machine or even its OS level (although this, perhaps, is more true of Linux machines).

But I'm not going to hold my breath while I wait for it.

It isn't even a country, PecosRiverM.
It's an organization called the European Union
- ballooned from being a relatively sensible European Common Market.
It did not happen with my good will.
I apologize

I think this has been said before, but the only thing that is preventing the stats from being distributed is the fact that we have not yet made the "Data Processing Agreement" DPA available. Feel free to criticize us for not having that ready at the time we had to block anonymous access to the various stats feeds.

Once we have resolved that issue - which we are trying to do as fast as possible (but it is going much slower than we want ) - anyone who wants access to the stats will be able agree to the DPA and then they will get credentials that let them retrieve the stats as they did previously.

Now - assuming that the above issues are resolved and all of the external sites are able to resume retrieving the stats, I'd like to understand what additional concerns people have.

I believe that there is some question about the fact that new users are by default hidden and that existing users can now hide their data. Since user's who are interested in being competitive will be able to make their stats public and those that aren't can keep theirs private, then competition should still be alive and well. Aggregate level information such as total team contribution and total WCG contribution should still be available. Is there additional information that is not at the specific user level (i.e. aggregate level data) that people would need to be able to provide to make competition fun? What could we do (other than making everyone public) so that once people have access to the stats again, the enjoyment that people got from the various use of the stats remains as enjoyable as it was before?

I think what we have here, is an example of the law of unintended consequences - or not, depending on how pessimistic you are about politicians.

We're really only in this situation because both WCG and IBM are multinational.
If an EU citizen walks into a locally owned coffee shop in say, Idaho, and is forced to create an account on the shop's website to get on their WiFi, that transaction will be governed by the laws of the state and US government. The EU might like to claim their law is applicable, but they have no jurisdiction in Idaho or United States and no ability to fine the local coffee shop as it only operates in Idaho and has no presence in the EU.

I doubt the EU would target WCG for a violation. Going after a charitable scientific organization for anything more than a slap on the wrist would be terrible PR for any politician. But, going after IBM would have that company looking at fines, probably in the range of $750 million given their recent financial disclosures.

At some point, likely in the very near future, the EU will be forced to revisit this law. But WCG probably shouldn't be the standard bearer for that fight.

The $750 million figure is based on IBM's reported revenue and the maximum fine allowed by the GDPR. No fantasy involved, especially as fantasy is supposed to be a positive thing and this definitely is not.