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Google faces UK legal action for bypassing iPhone privacy settings to target ads

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Google faces UK legal action for bypassing iPhone privacy settings to target ads

#51

Post by ocdtrekkie »

OwlsParliament wrote: post #46
a_imho wrote: post #18

Google told the BBC: "This is not new - we have defended similar cases before. We don't believe it has any merit and we will contest it." Google agreed to pay a record $22.5m (£16.8m) in a case brought by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on the same issue in 2012. It will be interesting how this one ends, here's hoping for a pro consumer verdict.

$20m is a drop in the ocean to Google. This really should be more impactful.

I suspect until there's a meaningful way for business executives to be extradited for violating another country's consumer protection laws, there will not be an adequate way to penalize corporations for international misconduct.

Functionally, a company's max losses for violating a country's laws is loss of assets and business in that country, is it not? For an international corporation, very few countries have the ability to hold them to any sort of meaningful penalty, especially when a company like Google can simply withhold service to that country until the country begs them to restore it. (See Google News in Spain.)

I find the current case involving Google in Canada interesting: After losing a right to be forgotten case in the Canadian Supreme Court, the highest law of that jurisdiction... Google filed (and 'won') a case in the Northern District of California to injunct it's ruling. ...I don't know about you, but I don't believe a US court can invalidate the Canadian Supreme Court's order... so doesn't that just put Google in contempt of court in Canada?

Re: Google faces UK legal action for bypassing iPhone privacy settings to target ads

#52

Post by whatyoucantsay »

a_imho wrote: post #18

Google told the BBC: "This is not new - we have defended similar cases before. We don't believe it has any merit and we will contest it." Google agreed to pay a record $22.5m (£16.8m) in a case brought by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on the same issue in 2012. It will be interesting how this one ends, here's hoping for a pro consumer verdict.

Google doesn't believe the case for avoiding an Orwellian dystopia has any merit either. They want to track all your activities they possibly can, laws and consumer expectations be damned.

Re: Google faces UK legal action for bypassing iPhone privacy settings to target ads

#54

Post by dreamcompiler »

zencash wrote: post #50
ConfucianNardin wrote: post #8

It seems there were/are a couple of workarounds for setting third party cookies in Safari. One was to send a POST request in a hidden iframe using javascript. This was supposedly what Google used to bypass Safari's blocking of third party cookies[1]. Another is (was?) to redirect to the third party domain, and then back again[2]. This would supposedly work since the restriction on third party cookies doesn't apply to…

I work in adtech. Google have recently rolled out a 'global tag' to replace the 'floodlight' tracking code they usually use, this was last week. [1] https://support.google.com/dcm/partner/answer/7570440?hl=en

Thanks for that! Always good to know how to block new trackers.

Re: Google faces UK legal action for bypassing iPhone privacy settings to target ads

#56

Post by fhood »

OwlsParliament wrote: post #46
a_imho wrote: post #18

Google told the BBC: "This is not new - we have defended similar cases before. We don't believe it has any merit and we will contest it." Google agreed to pay a record $22.5m (£16.8m) in a case brought by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on the same issue in 2012. It will be interesting how this one ends, here's hoping for a pro consumer verdict.

$20m is a drop in the ocean to Google. This really should be more impactful.

Yeah, but I suspect that the recent bad publicity is the truly damaging part.

Re: Google faces UK legal action for bypassing iPhone privacy settings to target ads

#57

Post by simion314 »

codev wrote: post #29
simion314 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you respect the hardest privacy laws everywhere then you are fine, if you want to have different code paths like this guys in EU I can't spam them, I can't store private data without permissions but the other guys there I can do whatever I want but the other guys I can only do X but not Y, I suggest to just respect the best/strongest privacy law, a good product is one that helps people do their work and gain more…

The law in the US is the CAN-SPAM act in 2003. It requires email to have unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of the email and to take people off the list within 10 days of a request. There are similar laws, many of them stricter, in different jurisdictions. https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can...

Thank you for the information, I think the anti regulation people appreciate this law.

Re: Google faces UK legal action for bypassing iPhone privacy settings to target ads

#58

Post by simion314 »

emiliobumachar wrote: post #48
simion314 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you respect the hardest privacy laws everywhere then you are fine, if you want to have different code paths like this guys in EU I can't spam them, I can't store private data without permissions but the other guys there I can do whatever I want but the other guys I can only do X but not Y, I suggest to just respect the best/strongest privacy law, a good product is one that helps people do their work and gain more…

This might work for the "privacy" topic in isolation, but I think the GP's point still stands. Laws are much more complex than a one-dimension easy-to-hard scale, and frequently plainly contradict each other. How does your right to be forgotten square with my right to protest your misdeeds? How does stopping fake news square with protecting free speech? Right to offend vs right not to be offended? Each nation makes i…

I understand your point and yes it can be problematic in some countries, the solution is to not make business in the countries where local law contradicts most of the world and your believes. My opinion is that we should not give up on creating rules that help the consumer because some company will have a harder time, I understand is hard for a startup to build an airplane or a car because of safety regulation but those are necessary for the society at large. If EU will demand that your product comes with a warranty and US does not demand it you have the choice not to sell in EU or make a better product. Back to software, as long as companies will find new ways to abuse the users the users will demand laws to get protected, the problem is the laws differ from country to country or appear later in other country, could the industry find a way to prevent the abuses to happen?

Re: Google faces UK legal action for bypassing iPhone privacy settings to target ads

#59

Post by JadeNB »

fhood wrote: post #56
OwlsParliament wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$20m is a drop in the ocean to Google. This really should be more impactful.

Yeah, but I suspect that the recent bad publicity is the truly damaging part.

> Yeah, but I suspect that the recent bad publicity is the truly damaging part.

Bragging about how they've done it before suggests that they don't think the publicity is likely to hurt them, either.

Re: Google faces UK legal action for bypassing iPhone privacy settings to target ads

#60

Post by deftturtle »

fhood wrote: post #56
OwlsParliament wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$20m is a drop in the ocean to Google. This really should be more impactful.

Yeah, but I suspect that the recent bad publicity is the truly damaging part.

Most people don't care enough to have a bad publicity epidemic
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