5 ms·

I am curious. How does this work? Do big-tech companies actually pay these fines? In cash? By daily bank transfer? Direct debit? And to whom? Margrethe, the Q

I am curious. How does this work? Do big-tech companies actually pay these fines? In cash? By daily bank transfer? Direct debit? And to whom? Margrethe, the Queen of Denmark? Or to some bank? Or are bank notes scattered to wind in Copenhagen square so the people can stuff them into their pockets? Or do the governments of countries whose laws are broken have a nod-and-wink tacit agreement that "fines" are just numbers for the press to print and assuage our sense of outrage. Aren't we just starting to use numbers like this as abstract tokens of justice? I'd like to see Zuck made to personally lug an enormous pirate's chest of treasure up to the gates of Copenhagen, or face blood-eagling at dawn.

mikro2nd 3y ago
You might care to learn the difference between Norway and Denmark.
- nonrandomstring 3y ago
  Silly me. Of course, they don't do blood-eagle in Norway for non-payment of fines. Lucky escape for Zuck. :)
- madsbuch 3y ago
  I would not mind if they pay Norwegian fines to Denmark
  - xxs 3y ago
    Almost the same currency name anyways.
    - madsbuch 3y ago
      at least by name
- waihtis 3y ago
  Tangential, but it's a hilarious stereotype of Americans how they just bunch together the whole of Northern Europe. I'm a Finn, and in 9/10 cases when an American learns this, they tell me about their travels in Sweden or Norway. Can't help but think the correct protocol here is to respond to them "Oh you're American? Nice, I've been to Mexico!"
  - mikro2nd 3y ago
    Wait until you mention you're from an African country... :) "Oh, yeah! I've been to Africa!"
  - xxs 3y ago
    The OP's site address is .uk, very unlikely to be US based.
    - mikro2nd 3y ago
      I made no such assumption; merely pointed out that the original post is about Norway, but the commenter appeared to have confused it with Denmark. Could happen to anybody, really... ;)
  - ahoka 3y ago
    I think there are a lot of Americans who don’t know that New Mexico is in the US, so…
    - CalRobert 3y ago
      In fairness if you're an American from Uruguay you wouldn't have a lot of interest in the internal political boundaries of that area like an Estadounidense would. (though I suppose you could be an Estadounidense from the Estados Unidos Mexicanos - it's really not the best continent for disambiguation!!)
  - CalRobert 3y ago
    "I live in Ireland" "Oh I LOVE the UK!" got that (and variations of it) more than once..
- hutzlibu 3y ago
  That's easy, Norway has mountains and Fjords and Denmark is flat.
  - kawsper 3y ago
    If you're talking about the Kingdom of Denmark (and not the Country of Denmark) then there is Gunnbjørn, Greenland, 3700 m. ;)
Etheryte 3y ago
What do you mean? Big tech companies pay fines much the same way regular companies pay fines. Going to court and other foreplay notwithstanding, it's generally just a bank transfer to the relevant authority. If you messed up on taxes you usually pay to the tax authority of that country, for many other matters it's often whatever the equivalent of the ministry of finance is. Of course this differs from country to country, but this is a pretty straightforward matter in general. I'm not sure where the confusion comes from?
- nonrandomstring 3y ago
  You say that, but with respect, "the relevant authorities" doesn't add what I'm looking for. > I'm not sure where the confusion comes from? There is no confusion, there's a lack of concrete factual knowledge. That's different. Who exactly takes that money? When and how? And how does that translate into a win for the victims?
  - pjc50 3y ago
    https://cms.law/en/int/publication/gdpr-enforcement-tracker-report/norway https://cms.law/en/int/publication/gdpr-enforcement-tracker-... : "Fines are transferred to the state treasury". Which makes sense, this is usually what happens with fines. (is this a situation of coming from a US background and being confused about how a unitary state works?)
stOneskull 3y ago
i wonder where the money goes a big viking party would be cool
pjc50 3y ago
Given that this is Norway, they probably use Vipps.
vages 3y ago
The fines are paid to the Data Protection Authority in Norway. You can read their own press here: https://www.datatilsynet.no/en/news/ https://www.datatilsynet.no/en/news/ The kind of tit-for-tat you’re insinuating rarely happens, if ever. I would expect the fines to enter the state’s finances the same way other a fine for speeding does. Echoing other comments about how Norway and Denmark are separate countries.
- nonrandomstring 3y ago
  Thankyou. The next question is - if we're hoping to seriously talk about the effectiveness of fines against hostile and uncooperative foreign companies, how does the Norwegian DPA use that money to further remedy the harms inflicted on the people? That's not a lot of money in the scheme of things. but handing it out amongst everyone doesn't seem useful. The obvious danger is that the DPA becomes a self-fulfilling entity, in perpetual growth of power and reach, and quite happy if Meta continue to transgress. Shouldn't Europe use this money to invest in its own social networking infrastructure, thus providing a double-whammy against Meta's misdeeds?
- nonrandomstring 3y ago
  That's a really interesting list of cases and fines. They seem really active and mostly to operate internally in De^H^H Norway. What to do with that money? Some of the listed companies clearly got fined because their software engineering is rubbish and they made genuine mistakes. Maybe use the money to pay for (and force) those companies to have their programmers trained in better privacy related SE skills?
  - jddj 3y ago
    One company was fined for changing the password of and then accessing an ex-employee's email account when they left. Have to think that's pretty widespread behaviour. https://www.datatilsynet.no/en/news/2021/fined-for-accessing-former-employees-e-mail-inbox-and-failing-to-close-e-mail-inbox/ https://www.datatilsynet.no/en/news/2021/fined-for-accessing...
  - jononor 3y ago
rsynnott 3y ago
Bank transfer would be normal. In some countries a particularly awkward Naughty Company could probably do it in coins if they wanted to (depends on legal tender rules).

mikro2nd 3y ago

You might care to learn the difference between Norway and Denmark.

nonrandomstring 3y ago
Silly me. Of course, they don't do blood-eagle in Norway for non-payment of fines. Lucky escape for Zuck. :)
madsbuch 3y ago
I would not mind if they pay Norwegian fines to Denmark
- xxs 3y ago
  Almost the same currency name anyways.
  - madsbuch 3y ago
    at least by name
waihtis 3y ago
Tangential, but it's a hilarious stereotype of Americans how they just bunch together the whole of Northern Europe. I'm a Finn, and in 9/10 cases when an American learns this, they tell me about their travels in Sweden or Norway. Can't help but think the correct protocol here is to respond to them "Oh you're American? Nice, I've been to Mexico!"
- mikro2nd 3y ago
  Wait until you mention you're from an African country... :) "Oh, yeah! I've been to Africa!"
- xxs 3y ago
  The OP's site address is .uk, very unlikely to be US based.
  - mikro2nd 3y ago
    I made no such assumption; merely pointed out that the original post is about Norway, but the commenter appeared to have confused it with Denmark. Could happen to anybody, really... ;)
- ahoka 3y ago
  I think there are a lot of Americans who don’t know that New Mexico is in the US, so…
  - CalRobert 3y ago
    In fairness if you're an American from Uruguay you wouldn't have a lot of interest in the internal political boundaries of that area like an Estadounidense would. (though I suppose you could be an Estadounidense from the Estados Unidos Mexicanos - it's really not the best continent for disambiguation!!)
- CalRobert 3y ago
  "I live in Ireland" "Oh I LOVE the UK!" got that (and variations of it) more than once..
hutzlibu 3y ago
That's easy, Norway has mountains and Fjords and Denmark is flat.
- kawsper 3y ago
  If you're talking about the Kingdom of Denmark (and not the Country of Denmark) then there is Gunnbjørn, Greenland, 3700 m. ;)

Etheryte 3y ago

What do you mean? Big tech companies pay fines much the same way regular companies pay fines. Going to court and other foreplay notwithstanding, it's generally just a bank transfer to the relevant authority. If you messed up on taxes you usually pay to the tax authority of that country, for many other matters it's often whatever the equivalent of the ministry of finance is. Of course this differs from country to country, but this is a pretty straightforward matter in general. I'm not sure where the confusion comes from?

nonrandomstring 3y ago
You say that, but with respect, "the relevant authorities" doesn't add what I'm looking for. > I'm not sure where the confusion comes from? There is no confusion, there's a lack of concrete factual knowledge. That's different. Who exactly takes that money? When and how? And how does that translate into a win for the victims?
- pjc50 3y ago
  https://cms.law/en/int/publication/gdpr-enforcement-tracker-report/norway https://cms.law/en/int/publication/gdpr-enforcement-tracker-... : "Fines are transferred to the state treasury". Which makes sense, this is usually what happens with fines. (is this a situation of coming from a US background and being confused about how a unitary state works?)

stOneskull 3y ago

i wonder where the money goes a big viking party would be cool

pjc50 3y ago

Given that this is Norway, they probably use Vipps.

vages 3y ago

The fines are paid to the Data Protection Authority in Norway. You can read their own press here: https://www.datatilsynet.no/en/news/ https://www.datatilsynet.no/en/news/ The kind of tit-for-tat you’re insinuating rarely happens, if ever. I would expect the fines to enter the state’s finances the same way other a fine for speeding does. Echoing other comments about how Norway and Denmark are separate countries.

nonrandomstring 3y ago
Thankyou. The next question is - if we're hoping to seriously talk about the effectiveness of fines against hostile and uncooperative foreign companies, how does the Norwegian DPA use that money to further remedy the harms inflicted on the people? That's not a lot of money in the scheme of things. but handing it out amongst everyone doesn't seem useful. The obvious danger is that the DPA becomes a self-fulfilling entity, in perpetual growth of power and reach, and quite happy if Meta continue to transgress. Shouldn't Europe use this money to invest in its own social networking infrastructure, thus providing a double-whammy against Meta's misdeeds?
nonrandomstring 3y ago
That's a really interesting list of cases and fines. They seem really active and mostly to operate internally in De^H^H Norway. What to do with that money? Some of the listed companies clearly got fined because their software engineering is rubbish and they made genuine mistakes. Maybe use the money to pay for (and force) those companies to have their programmers trained in better privacy related SE skills?
- jddj 3y ago
  One company was fined for changing the password of and then accessing an ex-employee's email account when they left. Have to think that's pretty widespread behaviour. https://www.datatilsynet.no/en/news/2021/fined-for-accessing-former-employees-e-mail-inbox-and-failing-to-close-e-mail-inbox/ https://www.datatilsynet.no/en/news/2021/fined-for-accessing...
- jononor 3y ago

rsynnott 3y ago

Bank transfer would be normal. In some countries a particularly awkward Naughty Company could probably do it in coins if they wanted to (depends on legal tender rules).