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Austrian OGH asks CJEU if Facebook “undermines” GDPR since 2018

62 points by robin_reala 5y ago

Closi 5y ago
Answer: of course it does! Trying to wriggle out of GDPR with the silly loophole they think they have found IMO is arrogant, disregards the intent of the legislation and shows they think they are the smartest people in the room and that laws don’t apply to them if it stops them doing exactly what they are currently doing.
- Fnoord 5y ago
  Cynical me thinks they know these loopholes don't work, and are earning more with the loopholes than the fines are going to be (which would be a lower and later fine than outright ignoring GDPR).
  - dathinab 5y ago
    I'm in favor of changing fines to: "estimated benefit gained" + actual fine for large companies.
TazeTSchnitzel 5y ago
I hope this case clarifies whether all those websites that stopped caring about consent and instead require you to “object to legitimate interests” are breaking the law. It sounds like Facebook have been doing something similar.
tacker2000 5y ago
When will these large companies be properly fined for trying to circumvent the law at every step? There needs to be a unit in the EU just dedicated to these huge corporations, they need to step up the game and protect their citizens.
- soco 5y ago
  The standard position from the tech corner is that tech companies by definition are doing The Right Thing and going against them is evil/pointless/laughable (there's no consensus). Of course not all corporations are getting the smooth treatment, only tech. And I very much don't agree with this acceptance, we should know better exactly because we're in tech ourselves...
h_anna_h 5y ago
https://ruben.verborgh.org/facebook/ https://ruben.verborgh.org/facebook/
roel_v 5y ago
Periodic reminder: if you're in the Netherlands and want to join the "class action" by the Consumentenbond against Facebook (for free), see here: https://www.consumentenbond.nl/acties/facebook https://www.consumentenbond.nl/acties/facebook .
- AndyMcConachie 5y ago
  That website and its form are absolute garbage. They even tell you their form doesn't work with some ad blockers. Well guess what, I'm someone who is signing up to a class action against Facebook so I use Ad blockers. They also require gobs of stupid JS for some reason. I couldn't get it to work in Firefox, only in Chrome :(
  - swiley 5y ago
    It's always surprising when people screw up forms. Unless you have some special object you want to write a local editor for JS almost always makes them worse.
  - wil421 5y ago
    You should see my Credit Union website. I can’t even do certain things like external account transfers without disabling Safari’s or Firefoxes do not track settings. It’s a dumpster fire that’s provided by a software firm that targets small banks and credit unions. The software firm was bought by my ex employer so I’d rather not name and shame. Luckily I don’t care about their tech I care about their free services, low intersect loans, and how they treat me like a human. Anyone want to build small banking software? We could slap bootstrap on a pig and it would be better than what’s out there.
dane-pgp 5y ago
I'm also glad to see that noyb are thinking about the GDPR right of Data Portability, and want to establish what the limits of "technically feasible" are.[0] Surprisingly, Facebook is making some progress in this area, announcing[1] in April that: "People can now directly transfer their notes and posts to Google Docs, Blogger and WordPress.com." It would be nice if this was extended such that Facebook posts were automatically synched to a Fediverse account, so that your friends could follow your posts without a Facebook account. [0] https://noyb.eu/en/project/data-portability-art-20-gdpr https://noyb.eu/en/project/data-portability-art-20-gdpr [1] https://about.fb.com/news/2021/04/transfer-your-facebook-posts-and-notes-with-our-expanded-data-portability-tool/ https://about.fb.com/news/2021/04/transfer-your-facebook-pos...
danieka 5y ago
And one of the biggest takeaways, not providing a data subject with access to their data can result in damages of 500 euro.

62 points by robin_reala 5y ago

Answer: of course it does! Trying to wriggle out of GDPR with the silly loophole they think they have found IMO is arrogant, disregards the intent of the legislation and shows they think they are the smartest people in the room and that laws don’t apply to them if it stops them doing exactly what they are currently doing.

Fnoord 5y ago
Cynical me thinks they know these loopholes don't work, and are earning more with the loopholes than the fines are going to be (which would be a lower and later fine than outright ignoring GDPR).
- dathinab 5y ago
  I'm in favor of changing fines to: "estimated benefit gained" + actual fine for large companies.

TazeTSchnitzel 5y ago

I hope this case clarifies whether all those websites that stopped caring about consent and instead require you to “object to legitimate interests” are breaking the law. It sounds like Facebook have been doing something similar.

tacker2000 5y ago

When will these large companies be properly fined for trying to circumvent the law at every step? There needs to be a unit in the EU just dedicated to these huge corporations, they need to step up the game and protect their citizens.

soco 5y ago
The standard position from the tech corner is that tech companies by definition are doing The Right Thing and going against them is evil/pointless/laughable (there's no consensus). Of course not all corporations are getting the smooth treatment, only tech. And I very much don't agree with this acceptance, we should know better exactly because we're in tech ourselves...

h_anna_h 5y ago

https://ruben.verborgh.org/facebook/ https://ruben.verborgh.org/facebook/

roel_v 5y ago

Periodic reminder: if you're in the Netherlands and want to join the "class action" by the Consumentenbond against Facebook (for free), see here: https://www.consumentenbond.nl/acties/facebook https://www.consumentenbond.nl/acties/facebook .

AndyMcConachie 5y ago
That website and its form are absolute garbage. They even tell you their form doesn't work with some ad blockers. Well guess what, I'm someone who is signing up to a class action against Facebook so I use Ad blockers. They also require gobs of stupid JS for some reason. I couldn't get it to work in Firefox, only in Chrome :(
- swiley 5y ago
  It's always surprising when people screw up forms. Unless you have some special object you want to write a local editor for JS almost always makes them worse.
- wil421 5y ago
  You should see my Credit Union website. I can’t even do certain things like external account transfers without disabling Safari’s or Firefoxes do not track settings. It’s a dumpster fire that’s provided by a software firm that targets small banks and credit unions. The software firm was bought by my ex employer so I’d rather not name and shame. Luckily I don’t care about their tech I care about their free services, low intersect loans, and how they treat me like a human. Anyone want to build small banking software? We could slap bootstrap on a pig and it would be better than what’s out there.

dane-pgp 5y ago

I'm also glad to see that noyb are thinking about the GDPR right of Data Portability, and want to establish what the limits of "technically feasible" are.[0] Surprisingly, Facebook is making some progress in this area, announcing[1] in April that: "People can now directly transfer their notes and posts to Google Docs, Blogger and WordPress.com." It would be nice if this was extended such that Facebook posts were automatically synched to a Fediverse account, so that your friends could follow your posts without a Facebook account. [0] https://noyb.eu/en/project/data-portability-art-20-gdpr https://noyb.eu/en/project/data-portability-art-20-gdpr [1] https://about.fb.com/news/2021/04/transfer-your-facebook-posts-and-notes-with-our-expanded-data-portability-tool/ https://about.fb.com/news/2021/04/transfer-your-facebook-pos...

danieka 5y ago

And one of the biggest takeaways, not providing a data subject with access to their data can result in damages of 500 euro.