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If the law doesn’t take into account human and corporate behavior, it’s not a good law. It may ultimately be the corporation’s “fault” but that doesn’t change t

If the law doesn’t take into account human and corporate behavior, it’s not a good law. It may ultimately be the corporation’s “fault” but that doesn’t change the fact that the law created perverse incentives. I hear the same argument for the GDPR laws that have resulted in annoying cookie banners everywhere. Sure, it’s technically the website owner’s fault for spying and adding a shitty banner, but… those banners didn’t exist until the law was created. We need better laws that more wholly account for human behavior.

pwg 2y ago
The politicians writing the law were likely unaware (or ignored) the Cobra Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect#The_original_cobra_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect#The_original_cobr...
hot_gril 2y ago
GDPR is the dumbest recent law I can think of. Even if a website has no intent to track users, it's way too hard (aka expensive) to tell if you're compliant without slapping on a banner.
- account42 2y ago
  The only dumb thing about the GDPR are hot takes like yours. It's pretty easy to not needlessly track and accumulate data about your users. It's harder when your users are not your customers but a product you are trying to sell to third-parties but discouraging that is a good thing.
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- Viliam1234 2y ago
  > it's way too hard (aka expensive) to tell if you're compliant How hard is it to figure out whether you place cookies on other people's computers or you don't? Even if you can't read your own source code, you could simply install a new browser, visit your website, and then check the cookies on that browser. I don't think it's GDPR that is dumb.
  - hot_gril 2y ago
    Cookies alone don't make you non-compliant, it's what you (or anything embedded on your site) do with them. You can also be non-compliant without cookies, but that's not fixable with a banner.
    - LorenPechtel 2y ago
      The reality is any web analytics will make you non-compliant.
      - account42 2y ago
        It isn't hard at all not to have web analytics though.
    - immibis 2y ago
      And the EU doesn't jump straight to the maximum penalty and gives you plenty of warnings to sort it out if you accidentally don't comply in a subtle way. If it's noncompliant in a subtle way that doesn't actually cause a problem they certain won't even notice. Look how blatantly Apple ignored the DMA and how long it's taken the EU to pursue real enforcement action. It seems clear: there is no need to *fear* EU penalties unless you are dead set on noncompliance. Honest mistakes don't bring down businesses due to GDPR.
      - hot_gril 2y ago
        If this isn't a written policy, it's not a good enough guarantee. If you're only judging based on Apple: Just because it takes long to be penalized doesn't mean you won't be, and Apple has a lot more legal resources than most companies.

pwg 2y ago

The politicians writing the law were likely unaware (or ignored) the Cobra Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect#The_original_cobra_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect#The_original_cobr...

hot_gril 2y ago

GDPR is the dumbest recent law I can think of. Even if a website has no intent to track users, it's way too hard (aka expensive) to tell if you're compliant without slapping on a banner.

account42 2y ago
The only dumb thing about the GDPR are hot takes like yours. It's pretty easy to not needlessly track and accumulate data about your users. It's harder when your users are not your customers but a product you are trying to sell to third-parties but discouraging that is a good thing.
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Viliam1234 2y ago
> it's way too hard (aka expensive) to tell if you're compliant How hard is it to figure out whether you place cookies on other people's computers or you don't? Even if you can't read your own source code, you could simply install a new browser, visit your website, and then check the cookies on that browser. I don't think it's GDPR that is dumb.
- hot_gril 2y ago
  Cookies alone don't make you non-compliant, it's what you (or anything embedded on your site) do with them. You can also be non-compliant without cookies, but that's not fixable with a banner.
  - LorenPechtel 2y ago
    The reality is any web analytics will make you non-compliant.
    - account42 2y ago
      It isn't hard at all not to have web analytics though.
  - immibis 2y ago
    And the EU doesn't jump straight to the maximum penalty and gives you plenty of warnings to sort it out if you accidentally don't comply in a subtle way. If it's noncompliant in a subtle way that doesn't actually cause a problem they certain won't even notice. Look how blatantly Apple ignored the DMA and how long it's taken the EU to pursue real enforcement action. It seems clear: there is no need to *fear* EU penalties unless you are dead set on noncompliance. Honest mistakes don't bring down businesses due to GDPR.
    - hot_gril 2y ago
      If this isn't a written policy, it's not a good enough guarantee. If you're only judging based on Apple: Just because it takes long to be penalized doesn't mean you won't be, and Apple has a lot more legal resources than most companies.