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You're not an EU citizen. The EU doesn't grant citizenship. GDPR doesn't do anything for consumers except annoy them. The vast majority, and I do mean the vas
by repolfx 7y ago
You're not an EU citizen. The EU doesn't grant citizenship.
GDPR doesn't do anything for consumers except annoy them. The
vast majority, and I do mean the vast majority of consumers, don't care about internet "privacy" - as defined by web geeks - even one tiny bit. Most users actually want not only tech firms but the entire world to know what they had for dinner last night, what their favourite TV shows are and what random thought popped into their head 30 seconds ago. Products that focus on privacy all fail in the market because nobody cares.
The idea that the EU has to protect people by passing ultra-vague "privacy" laws is paternalistic nonsense. It no more enhances my privacy or my life than clicking through a million cookie warnings has done: I have exactly the same amount of privacy as before, but now my internet experience sucks. Does anyone in the Commission care? No, why would they? They got to tell themselves they did something good today, whilst ignoring that they did nothing of value.
Let's be clear again: nobody cares about internet privacy. In the EU's own polling the top concerns people in Europe have are:
1. Terrorism
2. Immigration
3. The economy/jobs/state of government finances
The orderings of these move around over time but the top 3 are pretty stable. This year year climate change appeared too.
Internet privacy/online advertising doesn't appear anywhere in the list of top concerns. Go look at the Eurobarometer results and see for yourself.
So why is the EU spending so much time on this? Because they don't want to tackle people's actual concerns: they either don't know how or what people want is incompatible with EU ideology. For instance Immigration is still the biggest concern people have by far, but the EU wants lots more of it so the people's concerns will be ignored.