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You seem to be making several points here which as far as I can tell boil down to the following: - the COVID pandemic reduced some of our freedoms, but now the

You seem to be making several points here which as far as I can tell boil down to the following: - the COVID pandemic reduced some of our freedoms, but now they are back. - GPDR is not perfect regulation. It has holes that let bad behavior sneak through. RE: Your first point. This is an apples to oranges comparison. COVID restrictions were never anything unusual - the CDC has had legal authority to enforce quarantine for a very long time. It used those powers ascribed to it by law, and then stopped doing so when it was no longer needed. That's not at all what this thread is about, which is the government deciding that certain applications are unacceptable for it's citizens by fiat. RE: Your second point. The EU has much stronger protections under GPDR than if it didn't exist. The answer to an imperfect regulation is not to abandon the regulation, it's to improve it. That's why we have a process to build new laws or change them. To solve problems. It's like saying the problem with your car is that it is low on oil, so instead of refilling the oil you decide to just walk.

mk89 4y ago
> the CDC has had legal authority to enforce quarantine for a very long time. I am not living in the US, however in Europe it was hell. And it was decided by the governments from each country. If I recall, some regulations became even EU-based, like traveling. We're still West, although a bit more east :) It was not about an application you have on your phone, true, but governments are the ones paid for seeing the long term vision: if citizens die (because of covid) or there is a national security issue (because another country is milking your citizens' data), you have to do something about it. This is why I compared those two topics, albeit different. For me there is no loss of freedom in either case, but I can understand those who feel their freedom taken away. Regarding the second point, I love the fact there is the GDPR. And like you I agree it must be improved. The question is: what can you do in this case? We're talking about bit and bytes flowing through cables. How do users make sure that companies are respecting the laws? It's basically impossible. And that's when governments become aggressive: we need our whatsapp, ... we need to stop tiktok...and all that talk that might seem from unfortunate (fascist) times.
- idiotsecant 4y ago
  RE: enforcement of regulations. This is not a problem unique to digital world regulations. All regulations are essentially self-enforced. Some have a little more checking from the government than others. The answer is you put teeth behind it if a violation is found. This approach works decently well most of the time, and once in a while you need to add sharper teeth

mk89 4y ago

> the CDC has had legal authority to enforce quarantine for a very long time. I am not living in the US, however in Europe it was hell. And it was decided by the governments from each country. If I recall, some regulations became even EU-based, like traveling. We're still West, although a bit more east :) It was not about an application you have on your phone, true, but governments are the ones paid for seeing the long term vision: if citizens die (because of covid) or there is a national security issue (because another country is milking your citizens' data), you have to do something about it. This is why I compared those two topics, albeit different. For me there is no loss of freedom in either case, but I can understand those who feel their freedom taken away. Regarding the second point, I love the fact there is the GDPR. And like you I agree it must be improved. The question is: what can you do in this case? We're talking about bit and bytes flowing through cables. How do users make sure that companies are respecting the laws? It's basically impossible. And that's when governments become aggressive: we need our whatsapp, ... we need to stop tiktok...and all that talk that might seem from unfortunate (fascist) times.

idiotsecant 4y ago
RE: enforcement of regulations. This is not a problem unique to digital world regulations. All regulations are essentially self-enforced. Some have a little more checking from the government than others. The answer is you put teeth behind it if a violation is found. This approach works decently well most of the time, and once in a while you need to add sharper teeth