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The EU is a total clusterfuck when it comes to tech regulation. Maybe the only good thing out of the EU is GDPR, everything else has been a massive overreach do

The EU is a total clusterfuck when it comes to tech regulation. Maybe the only good thing out of the EU is GDPR, everything else has been a massive overreach doing more harm than good.

extraduder_ire 3y ago
The pricing directive is pretty boss. It's the main reason EEA countries show the full price of something on their price label, as well as unit prices (e.g. cost per kg) in most cases. You may not be aware of it if you're outside of europe though.
royal_ts 3y ago
European Accessibility Act for 2025 is also great
YetAnotherNick 3y ago
> Maybe the only good thing out of the EU is GDPR How is GDPR any good? All I saw is addition of misleading popups in the sites without any actual improvement to privacy. Has any big tech reduced data collection after GDPR?
- makeitdouble 3y ago
  > Has any big tech reduced data collection after GDPR? Any big tech still operating in the EU did. A lot.
  - YetAnotherNick 3y ago
    Any example or source? All the big tech is still operating in EU and I don't know of any reduction in data collection.
    - howenterprisey 3y ago
      Are you in a position where you would know firsthand whether big tech data collection is trending up or down, or if not, could you share the research you've done to reach your conclusion? It seems plausible to me that the fines and other penalties have forced changes in how some companies operate, based on the large fines (absolute value, not % of revenue...) that have made the news in the past five-ish years.
      - YetAnotherNick 3y ago
        What conclusion? As I said in my message, I don't know of any reduction in data collected. I am turning to community who might have some example if there is any instance of that.
      - AnthonyMouse 3y ago
        Their business model is sucking up all your data and using it to target ads. You can tell they're still doing it because they're not making any less money. No doubt it made them spend a lot of money on lawyers to figure out the best way to keep doing it, but what good is that?
        Moldoteck 3y ago
        Welp, considering rumors that meta is going to introduce a fee for using their apps with opt out ads in eu, maybe they really feel the effects of the law
        AnthonyMouse 3y ago
        Or they found a loophole because they can just make the fee large enough that almost everyone opts in to the ads.
        anticensor 3y ago
        That is not a loophole, that is a business strategy, albeit a malicious one.
    - makeitdouble 3y ago
      There has been sweeping changes in log management, data export to outside entities, reliance on third party providers to parse that data and come up with insights etc. Pre-GDPR, you'd open your logs to any random company promising to come up with something that could remotely help your marketing department. Nowadays, you'll have to vet your partners and audit how your data is handled internally. It's hard to come up with concrete examples when it's basically every single company above a decent size, as they typically don't want to work against the law. Same for the retention period, the very type of log that you'd open for internal harvesting (you could still be collecting the info, but keep it way more confidential to the point no one outside of your SRE team has access to the totality of it) It's as if you were asking what changes the PSI and DSS compliance laws had on the card processing field.
  - TrickyRick 3y ago
    Considering they keep racking up fines I seriously doubt it. It's become like banking regulation, fines are just a cost of doing business and you just have to factor in the percent chance of getting caught times average size of fine vs revenue. See https://www.enforcementtracker.com https://www.enforcementtracker.com
    - makeitdouble 3y ago
      But banking regulation still has an effect on any entity that can't afford to be continuously fighting lawsuits and paying fines. And actual changes happens on many of these cases. An entity getting fined three of four times for different offenses doesn't mean they never fix any of the issues. An easy example could be Google, who've been a target of so many of these complaints, and made many adjustment, up to building separate data centers with separate management rules to deal with the EU situation.
    - xvector 3y ago
      These regulations are so overwrought, complex, and even contradictory, that it is literally impossible to comply with them fully. Hence fines.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- dexwiz 3y ago
  In my experience there are much more stringent control over logging. Tokenization is the default for anything related to PII or customer data. Log retention rarely goes over 30 days. Data residency is now in the conversation when talking about storage. Maybe smaller companies can fly under the radar, but any larger companies with auditing and compliance controls take it seriously.
- myaccountonhn 3y ago
  You can legally request to have all data they have on you deleted from their website. That's fantastic.
makeitdouble 3y ago
They'd have less success and support if the EU wasn't the only entity doing something about antitrust and market abuse. This kind of massive initiative becomes realistic because they've been battling for ages against the tech giants and know they can take the heat.
- AnthonyMouse 3y ago
  Are they though? They make a lot of noise about it but meanwhile who have they broken up? You can't even replace the OS your phone came with in most cases, Safari/Chrome derivatives are 95% of the browser market, app stores are still charging 30% with no meaningful competition and excluding apps that compete with their own, Qualcomm et al don't publish what's necessary to produce indepedent firmware for the zillion devices that use their chips and whose OEMs went out of business or otherwise stopped updating them. Sound and fury is nothing. Actually fix some of these.
  - scarface_74 3y ago
    Please tell me where this fairy tale comes from that either Apple or Google are excluding apps that compete with its own?
    - AnthonyMouse 3y ago
      Apple, for iOS? You have to use their browser engine, you can't install anything like a JVM or the .NET runtime that competes with their APIs, you can't replace the Apple libraries that other apps use even if you were willing to implement the same interface, you have to use their App Store app to install other apps, you can't produce kernel drivers for third party hardware, pretty much all of the software they include with the device you're proscribed from replacing with a competing offering from someone else. Google uses different methods (e.g. until fairly recently third party app stores couldn't auto-update the apps they installed, now many apps require attestation that fails if you don't run Google's code), but somehow or other the vast majority of Android phones still end up with Google Play and Google services.
TrickyRick 3y ago
Mandated USB-C was good, swappable batteries that's coming in a few years as well. GDPR was mostly useless and the only real consequence is more cookie banners that people accept as a knee jerk reaction and a lot of money that went to lawyers and "consultants" which helped smaller businesses get "GDPR ready". Chat control is not really tech regulation though, even if it affects tech the proposal is written by people who have no idea what the fuck they are doing. Ylva Johansson (The MEP responsible for it) has even said straight out she has no idea if or how this should be complied with but "They will figure it out" (They being tech companies). With people like that deciding our laws of course you end up with shit like this.
- lazycouchpotato 3y ago
  > GDPR was mostly useless I would disagree with that. I like being able to download a copy of all my data from all these big websites. Since I no longer use Twitter/X, it's nice to have a copy of everything I have posted there.
  - AnthonyMouse 3y ago
    They had that before the GDPR.
    - Moldoteck 3y ago
      Yes, but now with gdpr it's enforceable, what if twit decides to stop providing that data?
      - cccbbbaaa 3y ago
        It was enforceable before too, thanks to the Data Protection Directive from 1995. GDPR is an harmonization of the various national transcriptions of the DPD, plus higher fines, a better cooperation mechanism, and data portability (which is a bit useless but it's nice to have). Cookie banners also predate GDPR (it was the ePrivacy directive).
      - 3y ago
scarface_74 3y ago
You mean the thing that made web browser worse and entrenched the large players who are more easily able to conform to the 11 chapter 99 section monstrosity?
maxhille 3y ago
Mobile Roaming is awesome though
Xelbair 3y ago
Even GDPR turned out to lack teeth and be easily circumvented. Fines are sky high, but i see abuse daily, and no regulatory body cares.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

The EU is a total clusterfuck when it comes to tech regulation. Maybe the only good thing out of the EU is GDPR, everything else has been a massive overreach doing more harm than good.

extraduder_ire 3y ago

The pricing directive is pretty boss. It's the main reason EEA countries show the full price of something on their price label, as well as unit prices (e.g. cost per kg) in most cases. You may not be aware of it if you're outside of europe though.

royal_ts 3y ago

European Accessibility Act for 2025 is also great

YetAnotherNick 3y ago

> Maybe the only good thing out of the EU is GDPR How is GDPR any good? All I saw is addition of misleading popups in the sites without any actual improvement to privacy. Has any big tech reduced data collection after GDPR?

makeitdouble 3y ago
> Has any big tech reduced data collection after GDPR? Any big tech still operating in the EU did. A lot.
- YetAnotherNick 3y ago
  Any example or source? All the big tech is still operating in EU and I don't know of any reduction in data collection.
  - howenterprisey 3y ago
    Are you in a position where you would know firsthand whether big tech data collection is trending up or down, or if not, could you share the research you've done to reach your conclusion? It seems plausible to me that the fines and other penalties have forced changes in how some companies operate, based on the large fines (absolute value, not % of revenue...) that have made the news in the past five-ish years.
    - YetAnotherNick 3y ago
      What conclusion? As I said in my message, I don't know of any reduction in data collected. I am turning to community who might have some example if there is any instance of that.
    - AnthonyMouse 3y ago
      Their business model is sucking up all your data and using it to target ads. You can tell they're still doing it because they're not making any less money. No doubt it made them spend a lot of money on lawyers to figure out the best way to keep doing it, but what good is that?
      - Moldoteck 3y ago
        Welp, considering rumors that meta is going to introduce a fee for using their apps with opt out ads in eu, maybe they really feel the effects of the law
        AnthonyMouse 3y ago
        Or they found a loophole because they can just make the fee large enough that almost everyone opts in to the ads.
        anticensor 3y ago
        That is not a loophole, that is a business strategy, albeit a malicious one.
  - makeitdouble 3y ago
    There has been sweeping changes in log management, data export to outside entities, reliance on third party providers to parse that data and come up with insights etc. Pre-GDPR, you'd open your logs to any random company promising to come up with something that could remotely help your marketing department. Nowadays, you'll have to vet your partners and audit how your data is handled internally. It's hard to come up with concrete examples when it's basically every single company above a decent size, as they typically don't want to work against the law. Same for the retention period, the very type of log that you'd open for internal harvesting (you could still be collecting the info, but keep it way more confidential to the point no one outside of your SRE team has access to the totality of it) It's as if you were asking what changes the PSI and DSS compliance laws had on the card processing field.
- TrickyRick 3y ago
  Considering they keep racking up fines I seriously doubt it. It's become like banking regulation, fines are just a cost of doing business and you just have to factor in the percent chance of getting caught times average size of fine vs revenue. See https://www.enforcementtracker.com https://www.enforcementtracker.com
  - makeitdouble 3y ago
    But banking regulation still has an effect on any entity that can't afford to be continuously fighting lawsuits and paying fines. And actual changes happens on many of these cases. An entity getting fined three of four times for different offenses doesn't mean they never fix any of the issues. An easy example could be Google, who've been a target of so many of these complaints, and made many adjustment, up to building separate data centers with separate management rules to deal with the EU situation.
  - xvector 3y ago
    These regulations are so overwrought, complex, and even contradictory, that it is literally impossible to comply with them fully. Hence fines.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
dexwiz 3y ago
In my experience there are much more stringent control over logging. Tokenization is the default for anything related to PII or customer data. Log retention rarely goes over 30 days. Data residency is now in the conversation when talking about storage. Maybe smaller companies can fly under the radar, but any larger companies with auditing and compliance controls take it seriously.
myaccountonhn 3y ago
You can legally request to have all data they have on you deleted from their website. That's fantastic.

makeitdouble 3y ago

They'd have less success and support if the EU wasn't the only entity doing something about antitrust and market abuse. This kind of massive initiative becomes realistic because they've been battling for ages against the tech giants and know they can take the heat.

AnthonyMouse 3y ago
Are they though? They make a lot of noise about it but meanwhile who have they broken up? You can't even replace the OS your phone came with in most cases, Safari/Chrome derivatives are 95% of the browser market, app stores are still charging 30% with no meaningful competition and excluding apps that compete with their own, Qualcomm et al don't publish what's necessary to produce indepedent firmware for the zillion devices that use their chips and whose OEMs went out of business or otherwise stopped updating them. Sound and fury is nothing. Actually fix some of these.
- scarface_74 3y ago
  Please tell me where this fairy tale comes from that either Apple or Google are excluding apps that compete with its own?
  - AnthonyMouse 3y ago
    Apple, for iOS? You have to use their browser engine, you can't install anything like a JVM or the .NET runtime that competes with their APIs, you can't replace the Apple libraries that other apps use even if you were willing to implement the same interface, you have to use their App Store app to install other apps, you can't produce kernel drivers for third party hardware, pretty much all of the software they include with the device you're proscribed from replacing with a competing offering from someone else. Google uses different methods (e.g. until fairly recently third party app stores couldn't auto-update the apps they installed, now many apps require attestation that fails if you don't run Google's code), but somehow or other the vast majority of Android phones still end up with Google Play and Google services.

TrickyRick 3y ago

Mandated USB-C was good, swappable batteries that's coming in a few years as well. GDPR was mostly useless and the only real consequence is more cookie banners that people accept as a knee jerk reaction and a lot of money that went to lawyers and "consultants" which helped smaller businesses get "GDPR ready". Chat control is not really tech regulation though, even if it affects tech the proposal is written by people who have no idea what the fuck they are doing. Ylva Johansson (The MEP responsible for it) has even said straight out she has no idea if or how this should be complied with but "They will figure it out" (They being tech companies). With people like that deciding our laws of course you end up with shit like this.

lazycouchpotato 3y ago
> GDPR was mostly useless I would disagree with that. I like being able to download a copy of all my data from all these big websites. Since I no longer use Twitter/X, it's nice to have a copy of everything I have posted there.
- AnthonyMouse 3y ago
  They had that before the GDPR.
  - Moldoteck 3y ago
    Yes, but now with gdpr it's enforceable, what if twit decides to stop providing that data?
    - cccbbbaaa 3y ago
      It was enforceable before too, thanks to the Data Protection Directive from 1995. GDPR is an harmonization of the various national transcriptions of the DPD, plus higher fines, a better cooperation mechanism, and data portability (which is a bit useless but it's nice to have). Cookie banners also predate GDPR (it was the ePrivacy directive).
    - 3y ago

scarface_74 3y ago

You mean the thing that made web browser worse and entrenched the large players who are more easily able to conform to the 11 chapter 99 section monstrosity?

maxhille 3y ago

Mobile Roaming is awesome though

Xelbair 3y ago

Even GDPR turned out to lack teeth and be easily circumvented. Fines are sky high, but i see abuse daily, and no regulatory body cares.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]