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I don't like Google but seriously this whole GDPR thing is getting out of hand. Anyone who's concerned about their data being collected can just block Google-o

I don't like Google but seriously this whole GDPR thing is getting out of hand. Anyone who's concerned about their data being collected can just block Google-or-like-related domains. Rest is just making life of web developers/admins/tech company owners harder. Especially with these European intentions I frankly believe this is more of a political war against US and US-based companies. (No, I'm not from US as well)

marian_ivanco 5y ago
I don't want to comment on GDPR, but you must be kidding with 'can just block'. Do you expect that average joe can do that ? It like saying, we don't need police you can simply defend your self.
- can16358p 5y ago
  Everything comes at a price. I don't expect every average Joe to be tech savvy to use extensions. Though when visiting a site (an action that a personal deliberately takes) if they really care about their privacy on web, cookies, GA tracking they aren't probably average Joe and can use a blocker.
  - jen20 5y ago
    You are conflating "technically savvy" and "doesn't want to be spied on". I understand that these probably correlate in your world, but a simple moment to think about why most people click "no" to the iOS tracking opt-in prompts explains that these are orthogonal issues.
ceejayoz 5y ago
> Anyone who's concerned about their data being collected can just block Google-or-like-related domains. What percentage of the general population do you estimate a) will know enough to want to do this and b) will know how to do it?
- can16358p 5y ago
  They don't need to browse the free web as well, but they choose to do.
  - ceejayoz 5y ago
    That's like blaming the people in Flint, Michigan for drinking the lead-tainted water.
    - can16358p 5y ago
      You need to drink water to survive. You browse web voluntarily, picking the website you want to visit voluntarily and with intention to go there. No one dies if they don't visit a website.
      - ceejayoz 5y ago
        Yeah, no. My kids cannot opt out of Microsoft Teams - it’s a school requirement. People applying for jobs are gonna have to apply online these days.
nottorp 5y ago
> can just block Google-or-like-related domains Got a grandmother?
- robertlagrant 5y ago
  Who's concerned about Google collecting data? No.
  - marian_ivanco 5y ago
    So you are not concerned about your grandmother ?
    - robertlagrant 5y ago
      #sowhatyouresayingis
  - Engineering-MD 5y ago
    Surely that is to do with her knowledge and education around privacy and data collection. Ignorance to the issue doesn’t mean we should ignore people like this.
    - nickpp 5y ago
      I am perfectly educated about privacy and data collection and I completely fail to see the actual harm being done. I am much more bothered by those incessant cookie dialogs.
  - vultour 5y ago
    So we should accept facial recognition in public because there are people who don't care?
    - nickpp 5y ago
      Should we allow it just because there is a vocal minority really bothered by it?
AndrewDucker 5y ago
People shouldnt need to be experts in data collection or computing in order to have their data treated fairly. If Google can't protect user's tracking data (and they can't - the US law won't let them) then they shouldn't be allowed to hold it.
- qiqitori 5y ago
  People shouldn't have to be experts in this stuff either just to put up a website somewhere, or worse keep up with every new ruling.
  - demindiro 5y ago
    You don't need GA for a website either. Many websites probably don't even need any form of analytics at all.
    - pyronik19 5y ago
      Do you really think we are in a better place now with GPDR and all these annoying cookie banners all over the place?
      - dale_glass 5y ago
        Overall, yes. At the very least it's been incredibly enlightening. It's amazing how random websites have 50 "partners" all of which for some reason need to know what I'm doing.
        nickpp 5y ago
        So you think your "enlightenment" is worth the millions of work-hours people are putting in just to read and click a cookie banner they give absolutely not a single crap about?
        jen20 5y ago
abofh 5y ago
Have you seen the list of companies that typically show up when you opt-out of data-sharing? It's frequently in the hundreds. I'm incredibly sick of them so frequently starting with "Your privacy is very important to us" immediately followed by "So we're going to share your data with these 100 anonymously named shell and reseller corporations." It's not GDPR making life harder for companies, it's the shadowy practices of businesses that are finally being brought to light. Source: US Citizen, living in EU.
dariosalvi78 5y ago
> Rest is just making life of web developers/admins/tech company owners harder. there are hundreds of alternatives to Google Analytics, developers/admin/companies should just choose wisely. That's what the GDPR is about: end of free lunch for everybody at the expenses of people's privacy, choose your shit carefully.
heurisko 5y ago
> Especially with these European intentions I frankly believe this is more of a political war against US and US-based companies. (No, I'm not from US as well) No, Germany is a big leader in the EU. They are very sensitive to issues around privacy, from the DDR era. They don't want private corporations having DDR-like folders of information on citizens.
- RandomLensman 5y ago
  But successive German governments really like the state to collect all communications data - so the sensitivity is very one-sided.
  - kazen44 5y ago
    the major other difference being that I can democratically elect who is part of my government. I cannot do this in a US owned corporation.
    - nickpp 5y ago
      Government surveillance on citizens has a long history of horrifying consequences, especially in Germany. What is the worst corporations are doing with our data? Better ads?!
      - heurisko 5y ago
        > What is the worst corporations are doing with our data? Better ads?! There is often no clear dividing line between government and corporations. You give one freedom to abuse privacy and it will be used by the other.
        nickpp 5y ago
        You mean the governments will abuse the privacy, no matter who gathers the data. Then maybe our fight is with them, not businesses.
criddell 5y ago
I have somewhat of the opposite opinion. I use Google search and Gmail and think they are good products. When GPDR was first being rolled out I was convinced that it was going to destroy the web and ruin a lot of what I like about it. I was wrong and now I’d like to see the US provide similar protections for consumers.
- nickpp 5y ago
  They to use the web from inside the EU. It is ruined.
acdha 5y ago
> Anyone who's concerned about their data being collected can just block Google-or-like-related domains. This requires a level of access and technical skill which most people don’t have. If you have ever tried doing this, think about how many sites break because they have code which assumes GA calls always succeed and then ask what percentage of the population would be able to identify and work around those problems.
tpetry 5y ago
> Especially with these European intentions I frankly believe this is more of a political war against US and US-based companies. (No, I'm not from US as well) Yes, that's happening, and it's a good one. Privacy Shield was cancelled because of Schrems II. The US simply don't care (intentionally?) to protected any data of people not living in the US. With FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) or "Executive Order 12333" they can get every data they want, even silently. Disclosing that a company had to handover any data will get them prison time. This is against the intention and protection the EU set for european people. So if a company is violating these terms, it's good to take action.
- p_l 5y ago
  Let's add that NSA has long history of engaging in economic espionage, including against EU.
  - viro 5y ago
himinlomax 5y ago
The CNIL was created in the 1970s. The main thing the GDPR has done is give it a lot more teeth. So in effect data privacy has been the law for over 40 years now. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse, not for such large corporations in particular.
scotty79 5y ago
When I was young adult, when visitor counter on a website was en vogue, I was building a system that would take note of where user came from, which pages they visited how long have stayed there, which page they exited through. What paths they took through a site. It didn't go that far. But when I saw people plastering Facebook like button everywhere I knew exactly what that meant. That one random corp now can know everything about everybody's behaviour everywhere. Then Google put out Google analytics and I just switched my sites to this thing. I didn't mind all that much because it was Google and do no evil was still a thing. But GDPR is something that reminds me of how ridiculous things we accepted as if they were normal just because they were technically feasible.
- FridayoLeary 5y ago
  The industry standard is to show utter contempt for the user. It's expected that every site will show you tacky and distracting ads and will dump 90 third party cookies on you. It's beyond belief. Imagine going into a travel agent to inquire about a flight. The moment you step through the door 50 people attach themselves to you. Some start recording your every action in a notebook, others flash torches in your eyes, two of them start showing you a video at the same time. And the rest follow you around holding up large ads. And they carry on following you around even after you leave the store!
  - nickpp 5y ago
    Imagine there is another travel agent not doing all that, but it costs money while the first is free. Wouldn’t you like to have the right to choose which one to visit, or do you prefer that choice to me made for you by politicians instead?
    - jen20 5y ago
      I would absolutely like the ability to pay for services which do not track or advertise to me. But they don't exist for the most part, and the existence of those services does nothing to diminish the requirement of the ones engaging in poor practice to make their service "free" to obtain _consent_ for what they are doing.
Sebb767 5y ago
> Rest is just making life of web developers/admins/tech company owners harder. Seriously? People spend tons money and time to track users. If you want to be GDPR-compliant, simply don't save unnecessary userdata and if you still feel the urge to do so, give users the option to control it. It's that easy. Any problems you get from it are of your own making. > Especially with these European intentions I frankly believe this is more of a political war against US and US-based companies We created the GDPR, but then knee-capped it with safe harbor. Then Schrems sued and the courts dropped it, but the EU simply reinstated it under the name privacy shield. Then Shrems sued again and after having to have a legal battle again, it unsurprisingly turns out that it's still illegal. I can't see how you think of the EU as anything but overly lenient.
- can16358p 5y ago
  Many just want analytics and GA is the most convenient option. Though with GDPR now website owners (many offering free content and hosting a site where a user explicity browses into with their own will) need to learn law to make sure they are compliant, which obviously shouldn't be the case for such a simple task. I'm not going into anyone's house and force them to give me their data, I'm collection anonymous data from people who, with their own will, visit my website/use my service. Don't want me to collect your anonymous data? Sure, don't visit my site/use my service then. No one forces anyone. Regulating what tech I can use on my own website? This is ridiculous.
  - Sebb767 5y ago
    > Many just want analytics and GA is the most convenient option. Though with GDPR now website owners (many offering free content and hosting a site where a user explicity browses into with their own will) need to learn law to make sure they are compliant, which obviously shouldn't be the case for such a simple task. The problem is that we made collecting user data the easy task while ignoring privacy protection. The fact that Google spend billions to make spying easy does not mean it should be legal. And it's really easy to be compliant - don't collect data. You don't need it to host your website, you really don't. > I'm not going into anyone's house and force them to give me their data, I'm collection anonymous data from people who, with their own will, visit my website/use my service. Don't want me to collect your anonymous data? Sure, don't visit my site/use my service then. No one forces anyone. Regulating what tech I can use on my own website? This is ridiculous. And you're absolutely free to ask people for consent for collecting their data or to simply block visitors from the European union. You can also not collect data or do so in compliance with the GDPR, by the way. All ways are perfectly viable. But just because I opened a link in my browser does not mean I consent to anything - by that logic, ransomware is perfectly fine, because you visited their website and downloaded their software. This is ridiculous.
npteljes 5y ago
It's just getting in hand, and I love it!
dTal 5y ago
This is like saying that we shouldn't have meat packing hygiene regulations because people can always go vegan. Yes, you can always avoid the bad behavior of corporations by living in a tent in the wilderness. No, that doesn't mean we shouldn't regulate them.
aloisdg 5y ago
pro tips: no tracking no problem. GitHub as my respect on this one
Bayart 5y ago
> Rest is just making life of web developers/admins/tech company owners harder. So what ? The right to privacy is more important than a select few having an easier time doing business, end of story.
- can16358p 5y ago
  Well no one puts a gun on your head and forces you to visit a website. Anyone who cares can always block GA with extensions either. If you are entering my site, hosted by me, owned under my domain, I can put whatever tracking script I want, controlled and used by any company and no one should have a right to control it.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
southerntofu 5y ago
This is completely unrelated to GDPR. In France, Google Analytics was illegal since it was ever started. French privacy laws from 1978 are still to this day MUCH STRONGER than GPDR which is just salt on the wound and does not prevent malicious collection of data (though now you have to come up with a "legitimate interest" excuse for that). Google knew they were making an illegal business and still went ahead. IMO they should be charged for being a criminal ring defrauding small businesses for SEO as part of a global scheme... if not for helping genocidal regimes surveil/censor/imprison/murder their population as they have been doing for years.
estaseuropano 5y ago
I don't like the meat industry, but seriously all these food safety laws are getting out of hand. Anyone who's concerned about salmonella, hormone levels or animal welfare, can just not buy any products that could potentially contain animal products from countries with weak animal welfare or sanitary laws. The rest is just making life of farmers/shops/wholesalers harder. Especially with these European intentions, I frankly believe that one single country's laws should be universal and no other country may implement or enforce laws that protect their consumers. The onus to protect themselves from harm must lie with the individuals and governments should not dare inconvenience anyone just to protect their citizens' interests.
- nickpp 5y ago
  Eating tainted meat can kill you. What’s the worst corporations can do by tracking you? Better ads?!
  - sweetbitter 5y ago
    "We kill people based on metadata." - Former NSA Head Michael Hayden.
    - nickpp 5y ago
      Last I heard, the NSA was a governmental agency, not a corporation.
      - sweetbitter 5y ago
        And governments now outsource some of their functions to bigger corporations as a loophole around human rights- mass spying and censorship, for example.
        nickpp 5y ago
        Then let's fight the actual problems - the governments - and stop going after the decoys. Let's make it illegal for government to access and use business data. That will fight the actual problem while allowing businesses to keep serving us better.
xaltsc 5y ago
> Rest is just making life of web developers/admins/tech company owners harder. Well, of course, tech companies, especially Google, Facebook, Amazon (and this one doesn't even respect basic work and union regulations and rights) are getting out of hand, making their life harder (if not dismantling them) is the legislator's job. > Especially with these European intentions I frankly believe this is more of a political war against US and US-based companies. Again, yes, of course, so what ? The US (tech and government) has been prying on the rest of the world with its tech advance and has been using it to spy and gather data it could not get otherwise. France, the EU, are just defending their citizens' rights and their interests, especially economical, against another threat to civil liberties.
- can16358p 5y ago
  I wasn't referring to FAANG, I was referring to smaller devs/admins who try to keep up with analytics and don't have ridiculous amounts of money to work with lawyers to see what they are doing for analytics for the sake of improving their service might be landing them $1m fines for some new rule in some geographical locations.
  - xaltsc 5y ago
    Well, if they want to operate somewhere, they have to follow local rules. I doubt American companies wouldn't comply with American law, European law is no less important than the American one and I don't see a reason why we should be accommodating towards foreign businesses, especially, again, those of a country which is a threat. Big companies shouldn't serve as a model to follow.
    - can16358p 5y ago
      That's the problem: web should be global and open: a website shouldn't be bound to laws of somewhere. It's 2022 and forcing following local rules for a web based global service only does harm to users (and the service). A basic example: government of my country requested all data and payments to/from PayPal to be controlled by them, PayPal naturally rejected it, and they got banned from my country. Now who is affected? Us! The whole world can use PayPal to send/receive money pretty much everywhere, but we can't. These regulations and "needing to follow local rules" itself is alone a reason for a completely decentralized-countryless web to succeed.
geitir 5y ago
Agreed
simion314 5y ago
>Anyone who's concerned about their data being collected can just block Google-or-like-related domains. Rest is just making life of web developers/admins/tech company owners harder. The GDPR is not limited to the internet. So say you go to make a blood test to check your health, GDPR will apply there too, you don't need to go with a fake ID and with a mark on your face, the law protects you from greedy companies so you and your family don't have to use weird workarounds to protect yourself.
foxfluff 5y ago
> I don't like Google but seriously this whole GDPR thing is getting out of hand. IMO it's the other way round: data collection and lack of respect for privacy got out of hand and has been like that for a long time now. It's finally coming under control, albeit slowly. This is not the end of it. And I'm super happy about GDPR. > Anyone who's concerned about their data being collected can just block Google-or-like-related domains. Why is it on the victims to protect themselves against illegal practices? We have courts and authorities for a reason. If it stopped at Google, this would be easy. But GA is just tip of the iceburger. > Especially with these European intentions I frankly believe this is more of a political war against US and US-based companies. (No, I'm not from US as well) I don't believe that at all. But ultimately what I believe does not matter. I'm just happy that right to privacy online is finally becoming a thing.
d1sxeyes 5y ago
Due to a misconfiguration by my local ISP which meant Google services were not accessible, I discovered that the UK government's 'parliamentlive.tv' has a dependency on JQuery loaded from Google's CDN. You might say that it's up to the UK government to fix that, and I agree, but as an individual with no direct influence on the implementation of this service, it's also clearly not the case currently that: > Anyone who's concerned about their data being collected can just block Google-or-like-related domains Or at least, they can, but they may be excluded from civic services they are entitled to avail themselves of, which their taxes go towards paying for.

marian_ivanco 5y ago

I don't want to comment on GDPR, but you must be kidding with 'can just block'. Do you expect that average joe can do that ? It like saying, we don't need police you can simply defend your self.

can16358p 5y ago
Everything comes at a price. I don't expect every average Joe to be tech savvy to use extensions. Though when visiting a site (an action that a personal deliberately takes) if they really care about their privacy on web, cookies, GA tracking they aren't probably average Joe and can use a blocker.
- jen20 5y ago
  You are conflating "technically savvy" and "doesn't want to be spied on". I understand that these probably correlate in your world, but a simple moment to think about why most people click "no" to the iOS tracking opt-in prompts explains that these are orthogonal issues.

ceejayoz 5y ago

> Anyone who's concerned about their data being collected can just block Google-or-like-related domains. What percentage of the general population do you estimate a) will know enough to want to do this and b) will know how to do it?

can16358p 5y ago
They don't need to browse the free web as well, but they choose to do.
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  That's like blaming the people in Flint, Michigan for drinking the lead-tainted water.
  - can16358p 5y ago
    You need to drink water to survive. You browse web voluntarily, picking the website you want to visit voluntarily and with intention to go there. No one dies if they don't visit a website.
    - ceejayoz 5y ago
      Yeah, no. My kids cannot opt out of Microsoft Teams - it’s a school requirement. People applying for jobs are gonna have to apply online these days.

nottorp 5y ago

> can just block Google-or-like-related domains Got a grandmother?

robertlagrant 5y ago
Who's concerned about Google collecting data? No.
- marian_ivanco 5y ago
  So you are not concerned about your grandmother ?
  - robertlagrant 5y ago
    #sowhatyouresayingis
- Engineering-MD 5y ago
  Surely that is to do with her knowledge and education around privacy and data collection. Ignorance to the issue doesn’t mean we should ignore people like this.
  - nickpp 5y ago
    I am perfectly educated about privacy and data collection and I completely fail to see the actual harm being done. I am much more bothered by those incessant cookie dialogs.
- vultour 5y ago
  So we should accept facial recognition in public because there are people who don't care?
  - nickpp 5y ago
    Should we allow it just because there is a vocal minority really bothered by it?

AndrewDucker 5y ago

People shouldnt need to be experts in data collection or computing in order to have their data treated fairly. If Google can't protect user's tracking data (and they can't - the US law won't let them) then they shouldn't be allowed to hold it.

qiqitori 5y ago
People shouldn't have to be experts in this stuff either just to put up a website somewhere, or worse keep up with every new ruling.
- demindiro 5y ago
  You don't need GA for a website either. Many websites probably don't even need any form of analytics at all.
  - pyronik19 5y ago
    Do you really think we are in a better place now with GPDR and all these annoying cookie banners all over the place?
    - dale_glass 5y ago
      Overall, yes. At the very least it's been incredibly enlightening. It's amazing how random websites have 50 "partners" all of which for some reason need to know what I'm doing.
      - nickpp 5y ago
        So you think your "enlightenment" is worth the millions of work-hours people are putting in just to read and click a cookie banner they give absolutely not a single crap about?
        jen20 5y ago

abofh 5y ago

Have you seen the list of companies that typically show up when you opt-out of data-sharing? It's frequently in the hundreds. I'm incredibly sick of them so frequently starting with "Your privacy is very important to us" immediately followed by "So we're going to share your data with these 100 anonymously named shell and reseller corporations." It's not GDPR making life harder for companies, it's the shadowy practices of businesses that are finally being brought to light. Source: US Citizen, living in EU.

dariosalvi78 5y ago

> Rest is just making life of web developers/admins/tech company owners harder. there are hundreds of alternatives to Google Analytics, developers/admin/companies should just choose wisely. That's what the GDPR is about: end of free lunch for everybody at the expenses of people's privacy, choose your shit carefully.

heurisko 5y ago

> Especially with these European intentions I frankly believe this is more of a political war against US and US-based companies. (No, I'm not from US as well) No, Germany is a big leader in the EU. They are very sensitive to issues around privacy, from the DDR era. They don't want private corporations having DDR-like folders of information on citizens.

RandomLensman 5y ago
But successive German governments really like the state to collect all communications data - so the sensitivity is very one-sided.
- kazen44 5y ago
  the major other difference being that I can democratically elect who is part of my government. I cannot do this in a US owned corporation.
  - nickpp 5y ago
    Government surveillance on citizens has a long history of horrifying consequences, especially in Germany. What is the worst corporations are doing with our data? Better ads?!
    - heurisko 5y ago
      > What is the worst corporations are doing with our data? Better ads?! There is often no clear dividing line between government and corporations. You give one freedom to abuse privacy and it will be used by the other.
      - nickpp 5y ago
        You mean the governments will abuse the privacy, no matter who gathers the data. Then maybe our fight is with them, not businesses.

criddell 5y ago

I have somewhat of the opposite opinion. I use Google search and Gmail and think they are good products. When GPDR was first being rolled out I was convinced that it was going to destroy the web and ruin a lot of what I like about it. I was wrong and now I’d like to see the US provide similar protections for consumers.

nickpp 5y ago
They to use the web from inside the EU. It is ruined.

acdha 5y ago

> Anyone who's concerned about their data being collected can just block Google-or-like-related domains. This requires a level of access and technical skill which most people don’t have. If you have ever tried doing this, think about how many sites break because they have code which assumes GA calls always succeed and then ask what percentage of the population would be able to identify and work around those problems.

tpetry 5y ago

> Especially with these European intentions I frankly believe this is more of a political war against US and US-based companies. (No, I'm not from US as well) Yes, that's happening, and it's a good one. Privacy Shield was cancelled because of Schrems II. The US simply don't care (intentionally?) to protected any data of people not living in the US. With FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) or "Executive Order 12333" they can get every data they want, even silently. Disclosing that a company had to handover any data will get them prison time. This is against the intention and protection the EU set for european people. So if a company is violating these terms, it's good to take action.

p_l 5y ago
Let's add that NSA has long history of engaging in economic espionage, including against EU.
- viro 5y ago

himinlomax 5y ago

The CNIL was created in the 1970s. The main thing the GDPR has done is give it a lot more teeth. So in effect data privacy has been the law for over 40 years now. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse, not for such large corporations in particular.

scotty79 5y ago

When I was young adult, when visitor counter on a website was en vogue, I was building a system that would take note of where user came from, which pages they visited how long have stayed there, which page they exited through. What paths they took through a site. It didn't go that far. But when I saw people plastering Facebook like button everywhere I knew exactly what that meant. That one random corp now can know everything about everybody's behaviour everywhere. Then Google put out Google analytics and I just switched my sites to this thing. I didn't mind all that much because it was Google and do no evil was still a thing. But GDPR is something that reminds me of how ridiculous things we accepted as if they were normal just because they were technically feasible.

FridayoLeary 5y ago
The industry standard is to show utter contempt for the user. It's expected that every site will show you tacky and distracting ads and will dump 90 third party cookies on you. It's beyond belief. Imagine going into a travel agent to inquire about a flight. The moment you step through the door 50 people attach themselves to you. Some start recording your every action in a notebook, others flash torches in your eyes, two of them start showing you a video at the same time. And the rest follow you around holding up large ads. And they carry on following you around even after you leave the store!
- nickpp 5y ago
  Imagine there is another travel agent not doing all that, but it costs money while the first is free. Wouldn’t you like to have the right to choose which one to visit, or do you prefer that choice to me made for you by politicians instead?
  - jen20 5y ago
    I would absolutely like the ability to pay for services which do not track or advertise to me. But they don't exist for the most part, and the existence of those services does nothing to diminish the requirement of the ones engaging in poor practice to make their service "free" to obtain _consent_ for what they are doing.

Sebb767 5y ago

> Rest is just making life of web developers/admins/tech company owners harder. Seriously? People spend tons money and time to track users. If you want to be GDPR-compliant, simply don't save unnecessary userdata and if you still feel the urge to do so, give users the option to control it. It's that easy. Any problems you get from it are of your own making. > Especially with these European intentions I frankly believe this is more of a political war against US and US-based companies We created the GDPR, but then knee-capped it with safe harbor. Then Schrems sued and the courts dropped it, but the EU simply reinstated it under the name privacy shield. Then Shrems sued again and after having to have a legal battle again, it unsurprisingly turns out that it's still illegal. I can't see how you think of the EU as anything but overly lenient.

can16358p 5y ago
Many just want analytics and GA is the most convenient option. Though with GDPR now website owners (many offering free content and hosting a site where a user explicity browses into with their own will) need to learn law to make sure they are compliant, which obviously shouldn't be the case for such a simple task. I'm not going into anyone's house and force them to give me their data, I'm collection anonymous data from people who, with their own will, visit my website/use my service. Don't want me to collect your anonymous data? Sure, don't visit my site/use my service then. No one forces anyone. Regulating what tech I can use on my own website? This is ridiculous.
- Sebb767 5y ago
  > Many just want analytics and GA is the most convenient option. Though with GDPR now website owners (many offering free content and hosting a site where a user explicity browses into with their own will) need to learn law to make sure they are compliant, which obviously shouldn't be the case for such a simple task. The problem is that we made collecting user data the easy task while ignoring privacy protection. The fact that Google spend billions to make spying easy does not mean it should be legal. And it's really easy to be compliant - don't collect data. You don't need it to host your website, you really don't. > I'm not going into anyone's house and force them to give me their data, I'm collection anonymous data from people who, with their own will, visit my website/use my service. Don't want me to collect your anonymous data? Sure, don't visit my site/use my service then. No one forces anyone. Regulating what tech I can use on my own website? This is ridiculous. And you're absolutely free to ask people for consent for collecting their data or to simply block visitors from the European union. You can also not collect data or do so in compliance with the GDPR, by the way. All ways are perfectly viable. But just because I opened a link in my browser does not mean I consent to anything - by that logic, ransomware is perfectly fine, because you visited their website and downloaded their software. This is ridiculous.

npteljes 5y ago

It's just getting in hand, and I love it!

dTal 5y ago

This is like saying that we shouldn't have meat packing hygiene regulations because people can always go vegan. Yes, you can always avoid the bad behavior of corporations by living in a tent in the wilderness. No, that doesn't mean we shouldn't regulate them.

aloisdg 5y ago

pro tips: no tracking no problem. GitHub as my respect on this one

Bayart 5y ago

> Rest is just making life of web developers/admins/tech company owners harder. So what ? The right to privacy is more important than a select few having an easier time doing business, end of story.

can16358p 5y ago
Well no one puts a gun on your head and forces you to visit a website. Anyone who cares can always block GA with extensions either. If you are entering my site, hosted by me, owned under my domain, I can put whatever tracking script I want, controlled and used by any company and no one should have a right to control it.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

southerntofu 5y ago

This is completely unrelated to GDPR. In France, Google Analytics was illegal since it was ever started. French privacy laws from 1978 are still to this day MUCH STRONGER than GPDR which is just salt on the wound and does not prevent malicious collection of data (though now you have to come up with a "legitimate interest" excuse for that). Google knew they were making an illegal business and still went ahead. IMO they should be charged for being a criminal ring defrauding small businesses for SEO as part of a global scheme... if not for helping genocidal regimes surveil/censor/imprison/murder their population as they have been doing for years.

estaseuropano 5y ago

I don't like the meat industry, but seriously all these food safety laws are getting out of hand. Anyone who's concerned about salmonella, hormone levels or animal welfare, can just not buy any products that could potentially contain animal products from countries with weak animal welfare or sanitary laws. The rest is just making life of farmers/shops/wholesalers harder. Especially with these European intentions, I frankly believe that one single country's laws should be universal and no other country may implement or enforce laws that protect their consumers. The onus to protect themselves from harm must lie with the individuals and governments should not dare inconvenience anyone just to protect their citizens' interests.

nickpp 5y ago
Eating tainted meat can kill you. What’s the worst corporations can do by tracking you? Better ads?!
- sweetbitter 5y ago
  "We kill people based on metadata." - Former NSA Head Michael Hayden.
  - nickpp 5y ago
    Last I heard, the NSA was a governmental agency, not a corporation.
    - sweetbitter 5y ago
      And governments now outsource some of their functions to bigger corporations as a loophole around human rights- mass spying and censorship, for example.
      - nickpp 5y ago
        Then let's fight the actual problems - the governments - and stop going after the decoys. Let's make it illegal for government to access and use business data. That will fight the actual problem while allowing businesses to keep serving us better.

xaltsc 5y ago

> Rest is just making life of web developers/admins/tech company owners harder. Well, of course, tech companies, especially Google, Facebook, Amazon (and this one doesn't even respect basic work and union regulations and rights) are getting out of hand, making their life harder (if not dismantling them) is the legislator's job. > Especially with these European intentions I frankly believe this is more of a political war against US and US-based companies. Again, yes, of course, so what ? The US (tech and government) has been prying on the rest of the world with its tech advance and has been using it to spy and gather data it could not get otherwise. France, the EU, are just defending their citizens' rights and their interests, especially economical, against another threat to civil liberties.

can16358p 5y ago
I wasn't referring to FAANG, I was referring to smaller devs/admins who try to keep up with analytics and don't have ridiculous amounts of money to work with lawyers to see what they are doing for analytics for the sake of improving their service might be landing them $1m fines for some new rule in some geographical locations.
- xaltsc 5y ago
  Well, if they want to operate somewhere, they have to follow local rules. I doubt American companies wouldn't comply with American law, European law is no less important than the American one and I don't see a reason why we should be accommodating towards foreign businesses, especially, again, those of a country which is a threat. Big companies shouldn't serve as a model to follow.
  - can16358p 5y ago
    That's the problem: web should be global and open: a website shouldn't be bound to laws of somewhere. It's 2022 and forcing following local rules for a web based global service only does harm to users (and the service). A basic example: government of my country requested all data and payments to/from PayPal to be controlled by them, PayPal naturally rejected it, and they got banned from my country. Now who is affected? Us! The whole world can use PayPal to send/receive money pretty much everywhere, but we can't. These regulations and "needing to follow local rules" itself is alone a reason for a completely decentralized-countryless web to succeed.

geitir 5y ago

Agreed

simion314 5y ago

>Anyone who's concerned about their data being collected can just block Google-or-like-related domains. Rest is just making life of web developers/admins/tech company owners harder. The GDPR is not limited to the internet. So say you go to make a blood test to check your health, GDPR will apply there too, you don't need to go with a fake ID and with a mark on your face, the law protects you from greedy companies so you and your family don't have to use weird workarounds to protect yourself.

foxfluff 5y ago

> I don't like Google but seriously this whole GDPR thing is getting out of hand. IMO it's the other way round: data collection and lack of respect for privacy got out of hand and has been like that for a long time now. It's finally coming under control, albeit slowly. This is not the end of it. And I'm super happy about GDPR. > Anyone who's concerned about their data being collected can just block Google-or-like-related domains. Why is it on the victims to protect themselves against illegal practices? We have courts and authorities for a reason. If it stopped at Google, this would be easy. But GA is just tip of the iceburger. > Especially with these European intentions I frankly believe this is more of a political war against US and US-based companies. (No, I'm not from US as well) I don't believe that at all. But ultimately what I believe does not matter. I'm just happy that right to privacy online is finally becoming a thing.

d1sxeyes 5y ago

Due to a misconfiguration by my local ISP which meant Google services were not accessible, I discovered that the UK government's 'parliamentlive.tv' has a dependency on JQuery loaded from Google's CDN. You might say that it's up to the UK government to fix that, and I agree, but as an individual with no direct influence on the implementation of this service, it's also clearly not the case currently that: > Anyone who's concerned about their data being collected can just block Google-or-like-related domains Or at least, they can, but they may be excluded from civic services they are entitled to avail themselves of, which their taxes go towards paying for.