4 ms·

It's enlightening to see read comments from this forum when GDPR was being introduced. It was just seen as pesky legislation designed to trap people needlessly

by s_dev 2y ago

It's enlightening to see read comments from this forum when GDPR was being introduced. It was just seen as pesky legislation designed to trap people needlessly in red tape and not legit privacy protections. I think a lot of Americans are coming around to sense -- now seeing US companies consistently abuse their data. The US should have similar legislation to protect Americans. Here's an example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17154971 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17154971

celdon25 2y ago
Seems like you're putting words in my mouth. The Utah law is 14 pages, where the GDPR is 88 pages, with at least twice as many words per page. We don't need a sledgehammer here.
- mindslight 2y ago
  Given that the EU has already taken its licks for the ineffective "cookie law" and used that experience to draft the GDPR, I'm inclined to think that length is quite necessary. I'm sure it's possible to express the spirit in a much shorter law, but such a law would be likely to facilitate legitimate activity by simply creating loopholes that severely neuter or even nullify the whole thing (which is one of the common failure modes of US legislation). Specifically, the EU's teasing out an effective definition of consent is paramount, otherwise the only thing a US privacy law would mean is a few more paragraphs in the bullshit legalese "terms" that nobody reads. Frankly I think Congress should just import the text of the GDPR wholesale and let the courts sort it out. I doubt the outcome could be any worse than what surveillance industry lobbyists end up doing to domestically crafted legislation.
  - celdon25 2y ago
    Sounds like they should hire you to tell them how to write the laws then!
    - mindslight 2y ago
      erm, isn't most message board discussion talking about what "should be" ?
- piva00 2y ago
  The USA has a justice system where loophole-abuse is rampant, much more than any EU state, I'd venture to say a 14 pages long law for the country is not even close to sufficient to cover against that aspect. Utah is a small state, the EU dictates how a free market should work across 27 different nations with a variety of laws, 88 pages doesn't seem much to cover for that.
  - soco 2y ago
    IANAL but my feeling is that also European courts judge more on the spirit of the law, so the unavoidable loopholes (because nobody is perfect) cannot be abused to the same extent.

by s_dev 2y ago

celdon25 2y ago

Seems like you're putting words in my mouth. The Utah law is 14 pages, where the GDPR is 88 pages, with at least twice as many words per page. We don't need a sledgehammer here.

mindslight 2y ago
Given that the EU has already taken its licks for the ineffective "cookie law" and used that experience to draft the GDPR, I'm inclined to think that length is quite necessary. I'm sure it's possible to express the spirit in a much shorter law, but such a law would be likely to facilitate legitimate activity by simply creating loopholes that severely neuter or even nullify the whole thing (which is one of the common failure modes of US legislation). Specifically, the EU's teasing out an effective definition of consent is paramount, otherwise the only thing a US privacy law would mean is a few more paragraphs in the bullshit legalese "terms" that nobody reads. Frankly I think Congress should just import the text of the GDPR wholesale and let the courts sort it out. I doubt the outcome could be any worse than what surveillance industry lobbyists end up doing to domestically crafted legislation.
- celdon25 2y ago
  Sounds like they should hire you to tell them how to write the laws then!
  - mindslight 2y ago
    erm, isn't most message board discussion talking about what "should be" ?
piva00 2y ago
The USA has a justice system where loophole-abuse is rampant, much more than any EU state, I'd venture to say a 14 pages long law for the country is not even close to sufficient to cover against that aspect. Utah is a small state, the EU dictates how a free market should work across 27 different nations with a variety of laws, 88 pages doesn't seem much to cover for that.
- soco 2y ago
  IANAL but my feeling is that also European courts judge more on the spirit of the law, so the unavoidable loopholes (because nobody is perfect) cannot be abused to the same extent.