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It really depends on whether the regulation actually changes practices and cuts into their core business model. A big part of GDPR is simply making consumers a

It really depends on whether the regulation actually changes practices and cuts into their core business model. A big part of GDPR is simply making consumers aware of how their data is being used. As awareness and scrutiny increases, it's entirely possible that ad tech as a whole suffers, and that will hurt Facebook/Google disproportionately. If the landscape changes significantly, that is advantageous to startups because they can choose to avoid quagmires entirely. It's really the middle-stage ad tech companies that don't have the cash to comply, but have too much momentum to change course that will really be fucked. Of course it's true that you can't start another Google or Facebook today, but that is for many reasons among which privacy regulation is merely a footnote. I get that a lot of fortunes were made in ad tech, but innovation will not stop because practices need to change.

deleted 8y ago
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Mirioron 8y ago
It's not about the fortunes that were made. It's about the fact that these kinds of rules could put an end to the relatively free internet we have had so far. It makes it harder for smaller sites to pay for maintenance costs while also increasing the barrier to entry even on the very lowest level. Remember the teenagers that were setting up their forums and messing about? You can't do that anymore. The chance that people like that would follow these laws are tiny. The effects of something like this are very hard to predict, because we know that hobbyists gave us many cool things over the years and they ended up transitioning into lucrative careers. This kind of an avenue is severely hampered by this. I'm afraid that this kind of regulation is simply the first step to wrestle control over the internet, and if governments manage to do that then the internet stops being free.
- dasil003 8y ago
  This is pure FUD. For a forum to be GDPR compliant all you have to do is tell the user what you plan on using their data for (probably just posting to the forum) and give them an option to delete their account. Also, the chances of regulators coming after hobby projects is nil. A lot of people seem to be parroting these talking points that are straight out of an ad-tech lobbyists handbook. The sky is not falling, and the threat to the free internet is far less than what we are facing from ISPs.
  - Mirioron 8y ago
    Any additional barriers to entry are still barriers to entry. These are non-technical problems that are difficult to truly grasp, because even people who do this for a living seem to disagree on many points. >Also, the chances of regulators coming after hobby projects is nil. "The regulation is okay, because we're only going to use it against the bad guys." This is not how a society based on justice is supposed to work.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

Mirioron 8y ago

It's not about the fortunes that were made. It's about the fact that these kinds of rules could put an end to the relatively free internet we have had so far. It makes it harder for smaller sites to pay for maintenance costs while also increasing the barrier to entry even on the very lowest level. Remember the teenagers that were setting up their forums and messing about? You can't do that anymore. The chance that people like that would follow these laws are tiny. The effects of something like this are very hard to predict, because we know that hobbyists gave us many cool things over the years and they ended up transitioning into lucrative careers. This kind of an avenue is severely hampered by this. I'm afraid that this kind of regulation is simply the first step to wrestle control over the internet, and if governments manage to do that then the internet stops being free.

dasil003 8y ago
This is pure FUD. For a forum to be GDPR compliant all you have to do is tell the user what you plan on using their data for (probably just posting to the forum) and give them an option to delete their account. Also, the chances of regulators coming after hobby projects is nil. A lot of people seem to be parroting these talking points that are straight out of an ad-tech lobbyists handbook. The sky is not falling, and the threat to the free internet is far less than what we are facing from ISPs.
- Mirioron 8y ago
  Any additional barriers to entry are still barriers to entry. These are non-technical problems that are difficult to truly grasp, because even people who do this for a living seem to disagree on many points. >Also, the chances of regulators coming after hobby projects is nil. "The regulation is okay, because we're only going to use it against the bad guys." This is not how a society based on justice is supposed to work.