Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How the GDPR Will Disrupt Google and Facebook

pagefair.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 362 posts

Re: How the GDPR Will Disrupt Google and Facebook

#51

Post by pg_is_a_butt »

ben_jones wrote: post #25
mattmanser wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cookie warnings is a bad example as it was widely acknowledged by anyone vaguely techy that they'd got it completely wrong from the start.

Eh, couldn't you make the argument that the Cookie warnings showed that a government body could meaningfully change the experience of the internet? As small as the warnings are, had anything like it been done before?

couldn't you make the argument that the USA showed that Europe has no real power, and militias could easily usurp their authority?

you're all idiots.

Re: How the GDPR Will Disrupt Google and Facebook

#52

Post by the_mitsuhiko »

bflesch wrote: post #41

I see this as yet another tax on (European) startups who have to invest even more resources into regulatory compliance. This prohibition of freely using all available data will create great arbitrage opportunity for the shadow economy, and will have a net negative effect on innovation. I think prohibition has very bad side effects, and that MORE transparency is the way forward in politics, economy, and also society.…

> I see this as yet another tax on (European) startups who have to invest even more resources into regulatory compliance.

This also affects American companies and the degree it affects you primarily depends on how much of your business model was depending on you doing nefarious things with customer data.

Re: How the GDPR Will Disrupt Google and Facebook

#53

Post by usaphp »

mnm1 wrote: post #44
shadowtree wrote: post #32

And if you think GDPR is a toothless joke, let's take a look at the defined fine stucture. It is pretty simple, only 3 levels (strikes for the fellow Americans): Strike 1 - Stern warning letter Strike 2 - 2% of your TOTAL GLOBAL REVENUE Strike 3 - 4% of your TOTAL GLOBAL REVENUE (or 20mil EUR, whichever is higher) And now you know why GDPR is a board level topic. Keep in mind that the EU/US Safe Harbor agreement got…

I wish more penalties were like this. This sounds great. Now these companies will finally have real incentive to comply. Hell, the percentages should be higher. That's the only way to enforce regulations. Otherwise, they'll just pay a puny fine, American style, and not do shit.

It's a percent from revenue not from profit. So 5% from google revenue is a lot

Re: How the GDPR Will Disrupt Google and Facebook

#54

Post by throwaway_9123 »

shadowtree wrote: post #32

And if you think GDPR is a toothless joke, let's take a look at the defined fine stucture. It is pretty simple, only 3 levels (strikes for the fellow Americans): Strike 1 - Stern warning letter Strike 2 - 2% of your TOTAL GLOBAL REVENUE Strike 3 - 4% of your TOTAL GLOBAL REVENUE (or 20mil EUR, whichever is higher) And now you know why GDPR is a board level topic. Keep in mind that the EU/US Safe Harbor agreement got…

Throwaway account.

I have national sales responsibilities for one of the majors. Think IBM/Microsoft/Oracle/etc leading a sales team of 74 reps.

You'd be surprised at how LITTLE sales we've generated from GDPR. We've been providing free GDPR assessments for the past 1.5 years for over 200 accounts as lead gen opportunity and very little sales have resulted.

It all boils down to companies simply don't believe the fines will be enforced given just how expensive the fines are.

And since GDPR doesn't go into affect until May 2018, companies are just waiting and seeing what happens.

It's really hard to sell GDPR because it's essentially an insurance policy. Why spend $5m on software and another $5m in services ($10m combined) if your total fine is only $20m. Do you as a company have a 50% chance of getting fined? If not, then roll the dice and not buy a solution.

Re: How the GDPR Will Disrupt Google and Facebook

#56

Post by Nullabillity »

bflesch wrote: post #41

I see this as yet another tax on (European) startups who have to invest even more resources into regulatory compliance. This prohibition of freely using all available data will create great arbitrage opportunity for the shadow economy, and will have a net negative effect on innovation. I think prohibition has very bad side effects, and that MORE transparency is the way forward in politics, economy, and also society.…

> as those players can easily shell out another $10M here and there to be compliant with this regulatory monster.

Sounds like you missed the part where the fines are based on a percentage of your global revenue.

Re: How the GDPR Will Disrupt Google and Facebook

#57

Post by bflesch »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #52
bflesch wrote: post #41

I see this as yet another tax on (European) startups who have to invest even more resources into regulatory compliance. This prohibition of freely using all available data will create great arbitrage opportunity for the shadow economy, and will have a net negative effect on innovation. I think prohibition has very bad side effects, and that MORE transparency is the way forward in politics, economy, and also society.…

> I see this as yet another tax on (European) startups who have to invest even more resources into regulatory compliance. This also affects American companies and the degree it affects you primarily depends on how much of your business model was depending on you doing nefarious things with customer data.

Of course this affects american companies, as the whole thing is primarily designed as a weapon for the EU against US dominance in the consumer space.

The big problem for the EU is that consumers actually choose the best product in a free market (the internet of free services), and they overwhelmingly decided to use the US-based options.

All the framing as "nefarious" is propaganda, consumers choose freely the option they value the most. If someone else comes along providing more value than google or facebook everyone would switch in an instant.

Re: How the GDPR Will Disrupt Google and Facebook

#58

Post by golemotron »

mnm1 wrote: post #44
shadowtree wrote: post #32

And if you think GDPR is a toothless joke, let's take a look at the defined fine stucture. It is pretty simple, only 3 levels (strikes for the fellow Americans): Strike 1 - Stern warning letter Strike 2 - 2% of your TOTAL GLOBAL REVENUE Strike 3 - 4% of your TOTAL GLOBAL REVENUE (or 20mil EUR, whichever is higher) And now you know why GDPR is a board level topic. Keep in mind that the EU/US Safe Harbor agreement got…

I wish more penalties were like this. This sounds great. Now these companies will finally have real incentive to comply. Hell, the percentages should be higher. That's the only way to enforce regulations. Otherwise, they'll just pay a puny fine, American style, and not do shit.

I've never understood what would happen if Google or Facebook just ignored EU regulations, claimed that they were not under the EU's jurisdiction, and ignored any judgement. Would the EU erect a great firewall at that point?

Re: How the GDPR Will Disrupt Google and Facebook

#59

Post by jpk »

xd wrote: post #34
shadowtree wrote: post #32

And if you think GDPR is a toothless joke, let's take a look at the defined fine stucture. It is pretty simple, only 3 levels (strikes for the fellow Americans): Strike 1 - Stern warning letter Strike 2 - 2% of your TOTAL GLOBAL REVENUE Strike 3 - 4% of your TOTAL GLOBAL REVENUE (or 20mil EUR, whichever is higher) And now you know why GDPR is a board level topic. Keep in mind that the EU/US Safe Harbor agreement got…

Strike 3 - 4% of your TOTAL GLOBAL REVENUE (or 20mil EUR, whichever is higher) Why would they impose a 20M limit and not stick to 4% revenue irregardless of it... edit: I'm not sure that the down voting is about.. it's still a limit , a limit that means a company turning over 0-500M will pay up to a 20M fine.. not so bad the closer you get to 500M but not so great if you're a small company, especially so as the regul…

I understand your point, but I still think it's wrong. The minimum on the third strike is so a little-to-no revenue startup or shell company or something doesn't willingly abuse data because the fine will be 4% of nothing.

Re: How the GDPR Will Disrupt Google and Facebook

#60

Post by loup-vaillant »

bflesch wrote: post #41

I see this as yet another tax on (European) startups who have to invest even more resources into regulatory compliance. This prohibition of freely using all available data will create great arbitrage opportunity for the shadow economy, and will have a net negative effect on innovation. I think prohibition has very bad side effects, and that MORE transparency is the way forward in politics, economy, and also society.…

I'm not sure "transparency" means what you think it means.

Transparency is when powerful entities (companies, governmental bodies, elected officials…) disclose stuff about themselves. Allowing a business as big as Google or Facebook to use all their user's data as they see fit is not transparency, it's mass surveillance.

Post reply on HN