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(Founder of B2B SaaS startup here) my perspective is GDPR, CCPA, and similar laws haven’t really done much to benefit consumers. They provide an illusion of pr
by cj 3y ago
(Founder of B2B SaaS startup here) my perspective is GDPR, CCPA, and similar laws haven’t really done much to benefit consumers.
They provide an illusion of protection, but I haven’t really seen concrete cases where the regulation has benefited broad swaths of people.
GDPR definitely makes it harder for new companies and startups to sell to larger companies (GDPR creates a lot of paperwork required to sell to large companies, which results in lawyer fees and efforts to comply that are largely superficial)
Meanwhile, Google/Facebook/etc are finding loopholes and ways to work around the regulation to “comply” (more of less) without meaningfully improving user privacy, IMO.
I’m 100% supportive of privacy advocates, but I have a sinking feeling regulation in place today is more of a charade that makes people feel good, rather than something that is actually improving online privacy in any meaningful way.
I personally don’t mind more regulation because our company can afford to comply with anything thrown at us (and we already treat and protect user data with extreme care), but I don’t think more regulation is guaranteed to have meaningful impact in practice.
Many people already know this, but things like SOC 2, ISO 27001, CCPA, GDPR, and lots of other security + privacy compliance frameworks are largely just a matter of getting your paperwork and internal procedures in order. I’ve run into a lot of people who think SOC 2 (for example) means we’ll have to secure our servers better, but the reality is auditors aren’t looking at your servers, they look at your paperwork. Paperwork typically does very little to actually make data more secure.
- TonyTrapp 3y agoI think the amount of crap and dark patterns that is missing from Windows 10 / 11 for European users compared to US users speaks otherwise.
- ultrarunner 3y agoI don't use windows; can you give some examples? (I ask out of curiosity)
- TonyTrapp 3y agoI don't have concrete examples but almost everytime there was an outcry about some new experiment Microsoft was subjecting Windows 11 users to (I think one of them might have been ads in Windows Explorer?), that misfeature was not to be found in European Windows 11 installations. I have also recently seen a video (I think it was on Twitter but I might be wrong) where the setup dialog for some Microsoft service had a dark pattern where it would change an option from opt-in to out-out in real-time depending on which country you selected from a dropdown box. For countries where the GDPR applied, the option changed to opt-in, and it immediately reverted to opt-out if you chose another country with less strong consumer and data protection laws. I'll try to find the video again but no promises. Edit: This is not a video but I think it's the same dialog that I saw in that video. https://twitter.com/AdamSmithKipnis/status/1121221430056603648 https://twitter.com/AdamSmithKipnis/status/11212214300566036...
- arcbyte 3y agoSeems to me like you've proved OP's point: you're now under the illusion that you have increased privacy but in reality you have idea.
- TonyTrapp 3y agoIf GDPR and related regulation caused Microsoft not to add those features in their European releases, I think it is but an illusion that we're now better of than without those features. Are thinks perfect? Hell no. Are they better than before? I'd say yes, definitely.
- hardwonjay9877 3y ago> I don’t think more regulation is guaranteed to have meaningful impact in practice "Guaranteed?" Of course it's not "guaranteed." What would that even mean? Obviously we would have to debate that once the legislation is drafted. Seriously what are you even talking about? Why does your comment exist? Why is HN so full of these stuffy comments that read like press releases authored by an LLM?
- cj 3y ago> Why does your comment exist? My comment exists because I’ve read the text of the GDPR in full, and have signed hundreds of DPA contracts in order to comply with GDPR. And I had a spare moment to share my thoughts. The TLDR of my comment is I think too many people see GDPR as some sort of blessing without realizing it doesn’t actually do as much to protect privacy as they assume. You’re welcome to downvote my comment if you don’t like it! But why post this from a throwaway? > Why is HN so full of these stuffy comments that read like press releases authored by an LLM? Clearly I struck a cord given the insults. If you’re able to articulate a real question I’d be happy to have a healthy debate!