8 ms·
Zuckerberg went to Congress and told them Facebook would support GDPR, as if the only thing GDPR is are just some controls you'd do at the user interface level
by IBM 8y ago
Zuckerberg went to Congress and told them Facebook would support GDPR, as if the only thing GDPR is are just some controls you'd do at the user interface level (and as we learned today, that they're attempting to get around with dark pattern designs [1]).
GDPR is much more comprehensive than that, but most importantly it gives data privacy regulators real teeth to enforce with (fines up to 4% of global revenue).
The only way Americans (or anyone else besides EU citizens) will get GDPR protection is if GDPR-style regulation is enacted into law.
[1] https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/986591125262749696 https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/986591125262749696
- sqdbps 8y agoWhy would the US congress want Facebook to go out of their way to maximise their liability to a piece of legislation intended to cripple US corporations and supplement EU budgets with US corporate profits?! Congress should convene a hearing about how current and incoming EU laws are thinly veiled protectionism against US corporations and what should be done about it.
- stochastic_monk 8y agoAre you certain it’s protectionism and not simply believing human beings have a right to privacy?
- sqdbps 8y agoPrivacy rights are well protected as it is, despite what the technophobic anti-corporate maximalists would argue, this law is about limiting and controlling what american companies can do on their platforms, it limits research and puts a roadblock in front of every data point with the threat of unconscionable fines on worldwide revenue which shouldn't be allowed under international treaties.
- pwinnski 8y ago> Privacy rights are well protected as it is Yes, the US regulations protecting our privacy rights are well-known, which is why the current Cambridge Analytica scandal couldn't happen, and triggered all sorts of... what's that? In fact, we have no privacy protections whatsoever? Oh.
- sqdbps 8y agoThe cam-anal (tehe) thing is about the press hyping and exaggerating a nothing story to hurt a competitor i.e facebook.
- lovich 8y agoHow are you capable of saying that privacy rights are well protected with a straight face. There are breaches every week in US companies and no on goes to jail, and no company fixes their shit because there's no reason for them to. The only way I could see someone believeing that it's well protected is due to making money off of violating that privacy
- badsectoracula 8y ago> this law is about limiting and controlling what american companies can do on their platforms The law also applies to European companies.
- shifte 8y agoFacebook might be known as a US company, but they pay taxes in Ireland (amongst other low tax territories) and hold most of their assets there to avoid paying taxes in US.
- sqdbps 8y agoNot since the new tax code went into effect, but what does that has to do with anything?
- pwtweet 8y agoMore bollox. Just stop fucking lying, you're just showing yourself to be an ignorant ass.
- dang 8y agoPersonal attacks will get you banned here, so please don't post like this. You've unfortunately posted other uncivil comments in the past, too; could you please (re-)read the site rules at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and use HN as intended from now on?
- krastanov 8y agoIt is not US corporate profits when it is from advertisements bought by Europeans for Europeans. Would you also suggest that the EU should not tax those profits?
- sqdbps 8y agoIt's US corporate profit since they are profits (revenue - expenses) made by a US corporation. This is not a tax law, what are you talking about?
- lovich 8y agoAre you serious? Do you really think nations don't have any right to tax economic activity happening in their borders because one of the entities involved has one of their numerous sub companies headquartered in another country?
- donohoe 8y agoI have to disagree. As someone who is grappling with the impact of these laws on US business I'm acutely aware of the non-existent privacy we all have and how our information is abused and resold. The GDPR, while a pain, are a response to decades of an industry that should have known better.
- sqdbps 8y agoI think you're understating how much of this law is about EU resentment of US tech companies' mindshare and marketshare.
- echelon 8y agoWe need a domestic version of GDPR with penalties just as severe. GDPR is a much-needed godsend for privacy.
- sqdbps 8y agoWe should protect our companies or at the very least not harm them.
- jacobolus 8y agoCompanies which abuse the public trust so severely and unethically should be forced to shape up or fined into the ground.
- ModernMech 8y agoRight, because it's the poor poor companies who are being abused and targeted. Oh will you just think of the companies! Companies are people too! What would we do without our exalted job creators?
- elefanten 8y agoSo when the EU does it, it's protectionism. But we get to "protect our companies" as a matter of policy. Cool.
- uabstraction 8y agoOh horseshit.
- pwtweet 8y ago"piece of legislation intended to cripple US corporations and supplement EU budgets with US corporate profits". The most ignorant fucking statement I have read on HN in a long time. The 2016 GDPR is an update to the 2002 EU Data Protection Regulation. It has nothing to do with taxes, profits or crippling any company. It is an enforcement of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
- sqdbps 8y agoBudget supplements come from potential fines which are set at an exuberant rate. "An update" as in adding new laws and regulations all of which are unneeded and all of which are targeting US companies.
- echelon 8y agoFines without teeth won't produce the desired effect. Privacy matters more than profit.
- Jedd 8y ago>... all of which are targeting US companies. Clearly not true, but exquisite in the context of the FB factory dodging tax via the Irish loopholes, and now moving away from Ireland as a base.
- sqdbps 8y agoI don't know what a "factory dodging tax" is but the new tax code removes the need for profit shifting so FB wouldn't take a tax hit and I guess you won't relish that as much. And on that note what's with all the commies here?!
- dmitriid 8y agoI've posted this before, I'll post it again: I wonder if you know that the US passed legislation a few weeks back that lets the US government request any data on any user of an American company even if that user and their data are not on American soil. (Possibly thanks to GDPR) companies may object to that request if it contradicts local laws. But yeah. Go on pretending that the EU lives to target American companies. From a European's point of view, American companies are not fined enough as they view privacy, data, sovereignty etc. as some abstract concepts that don't apply to them.
- tillr 8y agoI think GDPR will harm European companies and tax payers much more than any US company. Any European company processing personal data will be liable even as a subcontractor. US multinationals can easily avoid liability for non-Europeans as demonstrated. A European startup or even government organization (like also a European universities) will be bound and have much higher cost due to legal and thus monetary risk.
- hartator 8y agoYou are assuming GDPR is good. I don’t think so. I don’t want GDRP in the US. The worst abuser of privacy - right now - is the government. I don’t think putting redtapes on startups will solve anything.
- cesnja 8y agoBetter start with baby steps than none at all.
- craftyguy 8y agoJust because we can't limit all players, we shouldn't even try to limit the vast majority of them? I'm not sure I agree with that logic... Yes, the federal government is as bad (in reality, worse) than you say, but that's no reason to not take action against the thousands of other players that are blatantly following in their footsteps in terms of data collection.
- runeks 8y agoIf the government were serious about personal privacy, it wouldn’t mandate the storage of large amounts of personal information by banks on innocent people via KYC/AML laws. Government is pretending to save people’s privacy with one hand, while forcing private companies to store people’s personal information with the other.
- martin_bech 8y agoThat is a somewhat valid concern, but here in Denmark (EU) GDPR har actually been helpful to highlight some of the data collection by the state, and some of it, has been set on standby or at least been postponed because of concerns (student mental health/well beeing, was so to be registered, and stored on a SSN level “for research”)
- mantas 8y agoGot any articles on that? I wonder what local agencies I could fuck with in my country thanks to GDPR :)
- ggg9990 8y agoAll major tech companies are going to make the GDPR tools available globally for fear of accidentally misidentifying someone as not covered by the GDPR. Facebook will not be an exception regardless of what they are saying now.
- jakecopp 8y agoI hope this is true.
- jyrkesh 8y agoYup, I work at a firm where we care about GDPR a lot, and IMO it's wayyyyy easier to implement globally then to cordon off some subset of our users into a different codepath/databasee/workflow. If FB actually leaves it like this, then they clearly believe that there's a lot more to be gained by not complying with GDPR
- dspillett 8y agoThe depends on how much easier "wayyyyyyyy" represents. If it is harder to do but protects there use of data to make money enough that the extra effort is worth it, then they'll make the extra effort. > then they clearly believe that there's a lot more to be gained by not complying with GDPR This. Though more precisely it is the other way around: they have something to lose by complying globally rather than something to gain by not. Extracting every last cent out of every bit of data they could possibly hoover up is their business model. I expect they'd be better of telling EU users to go elsewhere than applying GDPR style protections to non-EU users (which they won't do: even if they can extract less from EU users less is presumably better than none especially when network effects are taken into consideration). > I work at a firm where we care about GDPR Same here. Our clients use our systems to store a lot of information about their own users and their customers. But unlike facebook that information is not their primary business and source of income.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- benevol 8y agoFacebook just needs to be gone forever now.
- Kiro 8y agoWhy?
- HenryBemis 8y agoBecause: a) it is not possible to tear it down and start over with good material/intentions/ethics b) they do not want to change their model, because they are making money from their current practices c) it is a VERY useful tool for evey government's dark/shady practices (gag order + give-us-everything)(exactly what every dictatorship does) d) people need to be protected even if they don't understand the risks (e.g. houses are built following a code - even if people don't understand that walls need X material and I-beams need to have Y width).
- CamperBob2 8y agoe) 'Black Mirror' was supposed to be a screenplay, not a business plan
- eeZah7Ux 8y agoSame for 1984
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y agoEdgy
- squarefoot 8y agoIn the long run it would not change a thing. Personal data is a huge business, Facebook demise would just put some smoke and mirrors in the media, then their customers would be sucked in by Google and others, at the same conditions. Limiting corporations power would be one thing but I don't expect any politician to move in that direction when either they're lobbied/bribed by the same entities they should limit, or face the risk of having their career destroyed (search for "mccarthysm").
- rmc 8y ago> that they're attempting to get around with dark pattern designs [1] The downside with trying to use dark patterns: The courts say "Nah that doesn't count. Ergo you don't have consent, ergo fine!"
- lukevdp 8y agoActually he was asked if Facebook would roll out the GDPR requirements globally and he said they aren't and that America has different sensibilities