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It seems to me that GDPR restricts economic growth. For example, I'd be quite happy to let my local supermarket sell my personal data to Google in exchange for

by MarkMc 9y ago

It seems to me that GDPR restricts economic growth. For example, I'd be quite happy to let my local supermarket sell my personal data to Google in exchange for a 3% discount on my grocery prices. Everone would benefit: (1) The supermarket gets an additional source of revenue; (2) Google can charge more for ads; (3) The toothpaste company gets better return on it's advertising; (4) I pay less for my groceries. GDPR prohibits this kind of win-win agreement, doesn't it?

fijal 9y ago
On the other hand, I would prefer to not have my local supermarket sell my data, even at an extra 3% and yet I have basically no option to do that.
Khaine 9y ago
What stops that local supermarket from selling your information to Google without your knowledge and boosting their profit by 3%?
- ryandrake 9y ago
  I suppose the fact that, if discovered, it will boost their revenue by -4% :-)
roblabla 9y ago
1. This is only a "win-win" insofar as you do not seem to care much about your privacy 2. GDPR does not prohibit this agreement, but it requires the company to get consent from you before selling your personal data.
mr_toad 9y ago
Advertising produces nothing. It doesn’t increase your income, you can’t buy more because of it (especially, if like most people you’re already up to your eyeballs in debt). It just chages what you spend money on. Advertising doesn’t help manufacturers make more or better goods. It just helps them sell them at the expense of others. Advertising is a deadweight loss, a competition between sellers that leaves them all worse off.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
mayniac 9y ago
From what I can see, this would be fine under GDPR anyway, so long as when you buy something in a supermarket they ask you "is it okay if we send information of what you bought to Google?" Of course it's completely impractical to get cashiers to do this every time someone buys something, so it will likely just be applicable to store reward cards. They're doing this already, and all GDPR will introduce is moving the paragraph in the TOC you sign which says "we might sell your data to third parties" to the top in big letters and make sure you explicitly agree to it (or similar to achieve informed consent). As well as adding some safeguards in place. A point on your example, stores already do sell your personal data to third parties as an additional source of revenue, but instead of giving you a 3% discount they usually just analyse your purchasing habits and throw discounts on other goods which they think you'll be susceptible to buying, so usually instead of you spending less you actually spend more on things you didn't really want before being offered.
- MarkMc 9y ago
  Doesn't GDPR say that 'informed consent' cannot be a condition of providing a business service? So as far as I can see the supermarket cannot say, "In order to receive the store rewards benefits you must agree to us selling your data to third parties".
adventured 9y ago
> It seems to me that GDPR restricts economic growth. It plainly does. It trades profit and economic potential for privacy, there's no question about that. I've seen near universal agreement from EU persons that that's a desirable trade in this case. It gives US startups an immense advantage. They can grow far more profitably in the very large homogeneous US market, unhindered by GDPR-style restrictions & compliance, and then take their scale/resources and project into the rest of the world and comply with local requirements. That US advantage will get larger by the year, as the globe perpetually fractures more and more on compliance requirements. It's going to become more difficult to operate in all foreign markets, as regulations for online services grow nearly everywhere. Most nations will put up barriers of compliance that will have a tangible cost. Europe will have numerous different GDPR-like regulations among its nations. There are 50 countries in Europe and only 27 are in the EU, that guarantees a messy, fractured compliance zone overall. This is only the beginning of what will be a dramatic reshaping of the way you could formerly build once in almost any nation and easily go global with a service, that will become impossible without considerable financial resources. It won't be: comply with GDPR and you're good. It'll be: build 50 different compliance systems to reach into 100 countries. Only very rich tech companies will be able to do it, something the US particularly specializes in building.
ionised 9y ago
Win-win for you. Not for others among us. > It seems to me that GDPR restricts economic growth. It does, but fortunately economic growth is not the central point of human existence.

by MarkMc 9y ago

fijal 9y ago

On the other hand, I would prefer to not have my local supermarket sell my data, even at an extra 3% and yet I have basically no option to do that.

Khaine 9y ago

What stops that local supermarket from selling your information to Google without your knowledge and boosting their profit by 3%?

ryandrake 9y ago
I suppose the fact that, if discovered, it will boost their revenue by -4% :-)

roblabla 9y ago

1. This is only a "win-win" insofar as you do not seem to care much about your privacy 2. GDPR does not prohibit this agreement, but it requires the company to get consent from you before selling your personal data.

mr_toad 9y ago

Advertising produces nothing. It doesn’t increase your income, you can’t buy more because of it (especially, if like most people you’re already up to your eyeballs in debt). It just chages what you spend money on. Advertising doesn’t help manufacturers make more or better goods. It just helps them sell them at the expense of others. Advertising is a deadweight loss, a competition between sellers that leaves them all worse off.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

mayniac 9y ago

From what I can see, this would be fine under GDPR anyway, so long as when you buy something in a supermarket they ask you "is it okay if we send information of what you bought to Google?" Of course it's completely impractical to get cashiers to do this every time someone buys something, so it will likely just be applicable to store reward cards. They're doing this already, and all GDPR will introduce is moving the paragraph in the TOC you sign which says "we might sell your data to third parties" to the top in big letters and make sure you explicitly agree to it (or similar to achieve informed consent). As well as adding some safeguards in place. A point on your example, stores already do sell your personal data to third parties as an additional source of revenue, but instead of giving you a 3% discount they usually just analyse your purchasing habits and throw discounts on other goods which they think you'll be susceptible to buying, so usually instead of you spending less you actually spend more on things you didn't really want before being offered.

MarkMc 9y ago
Doesn't GDPR say that 'informed consent' cannot be a condition of providing a business service? So as far as I can see the supermarket cannot say, "In order to receive the store rewards benefits you must agree to us selling your data to third parties".

adventured 9y ago

> It seems to me that GDPR restricts economic growth. It plainly does. It trades profit and economic potential for privacy, there's no question about that. I've seen near universal agreement from EU persons that that's a desirable trade in this case. It gives US startups an immense advantage. They can grow far more profitably in the very large homogeneous US market, unhindered by GDPR-style restrictions & compliance, and then take their scale/resources and project into the rest of the world and comply with local requirements. That US advantage will get larger by the year, as the globe perpetually fractures more and more on compliance requirements. It's going to become more difficult to operate in all foreign markets, as regulations for online services grow nearly everywhere. Most nations will put up barriers of compliance that will have a tangible cost. Europe will have numerous different GDPR-like regulations among its nations. There are 50 countries in Europe and only 27 are in the EU, that guarantees a messy, fractured compliance zone overall. This is only the beginning of what will be a dramatic reshaping of the way you could formerly build once in almost any nation and easily go global with a service, that will become impossible without considerable financial resources. It won't be: comply with GDPR and you're good. It'll be: build 50 different compliance systems to reach into 100 countries. Only very rich tech companies will be able to do it, something the US particularly specializes in building.

ionised 9y ago

Win-win for you. Not for others among us. > It seems to me that GDPR restricts economic growth. It does, but fortunately economic growth is not the central point of human existence.