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WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

reuters.com

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Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#341

Post by tluyben2 »

andrepd wrote: post #334
juanmirocks wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the grass is always greener on the other side. I'm European, and I sure miss my perceived greater freedom and innovation of economical activities in the US. Things like having UBER banned for example in France or Germany completely throws me off. And in Germany you don't know yet what's living without cash and only with a credit card. And those damn cookie notices!! Because they show up in every page, everybo…

>Things like having UBER banned for example in France or Germany completely throws me off. Funny, why would they ban a company simply for breaking the law? It throws me off too. In all seriousness, Uber's business model seems to be a mixture of disregard for labour and transportation regulations and of using their endless supply of investment to aggressively drive the prices down. Do you expect the governments to sit…

> Do you expect the governments to sit and watch?

No and if laws are broken something can be done, but there are too many cases / stories, like the one described for France in this thread, where the gov was not really interested until they got forced by some corrupt (smelling) means by the big taxi companies and their lobbies. And i'm sure (but maybe that's just cynicism from living life) those companies are not going out for 'the law' or against uber specifically; they would go after anything that is competition for them in any way they can. Uber just is easier because you can play a few cards which are internationally known; big trees catch a lot of wind as we say in NL.

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#342

Post by jimmytidey »

gradys wrote: post #134
RestlessMind wrote: post #99

EU is one of my best hopes when it comes to privacy and really wish they start going after tech behemoths. I have given up on US authorities doing anything to reign them in. And policies in other significant countries (eg. China) would be even worse for user privacy.

I'm torn on this. On the one hand, I agree, the EU legislates privacy to a degree that no other political entity does as far as I'm aware, but on the other hand, they often do so with poorly designed policies. As an example, I'd point to the cookie notices that appear on almost every major website, which must have absorbed, globally, many careers worth of man-hours to implement while offering virtually no real-world…

I think the cookie warnings might do something to get the idea of a cookie in consumer's minds.

I also don't think you can think of developer time like that. Imagine how many caterers have gone into making websites work on IE6. Stuff like that happens.

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#343

Post by ako »

notyourwork wrote: post #319
raverbashing wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last I heard, Uber works just fine in France > And in Germany you don't know yet what's living without cash and only with a credit card. That's on the Germans (especially Berliners), rest of Europe uses cards a lot more. And I'm glad the US finally took their head out of the sand and are using Chip Cards But yeah the cookie notice is pretty much useless (and I think it's been implemented badly by websites as well). N…

Can someone tell me as a consumer what benefit those chips provide? It’s slower and security isn’t my problem because fraud is covered by the CC company. So I still don’t get what the benefit is or how our heads are above sand now?

It creates a healthier society in long run if people cannot spend money they don't have. Some goes for the uber decision, I think it's healthier for the job market and society in general when this kind of exploitation of employees is not possible.

User experience of debit cards is just fine, I don't carry any cash, and typing a pin code is just as fast as singing your signature. And currently in the Netherlands debit cards also support contactless payment, where you can pay small amounts of money without proving a pin code. I don't use this though, as I don't feel the need to.

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#344

Post by InternetOfStuff »

pierrebeaucamp wrote: post #310
pgeorgi wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And in Germany you don't know yet what's living without cash and only with a credit card. That's because we had our own system established in 1984 (ELV, electronic direct debit based on the EC cards mentioned elsewhere). From a German point of view, a credit card is a downgrade. - The system covered all German banks (private banks, public banks = Sparkassen, credit unions) because they got their act together and se…

I don't think that matters at all. Many countries have their own debit card system and for what it's worth, I think EC cards are great debit cards. They can, however, not replace credit cards. All the benefits from credit cards really come from the fact that you're paying with credit: - Travel a lot? They sure accept Visa. - Want to pay some street vendor? Square is only possible because they don't need to dial your…

> the cost to acquire a debit card reader from your bank is still high.

My friend owns a retail business, and acquired a debit card reader for it. I was surprised at how cheap it was (ISTR 50€ -- certainly below 100€). He's quite happy with the bank's tech support, too.

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#345

Post by michel-slm »

jamiequint wrote: post #180
RestlessMind wrote: post #99

EU is one of my best hopes when it comes to privacy and really wish they start going after tech behemoths. I have given up on US authorities doing anything to reign them in. And policies in other significant countries (eg. China) would be even worse for user privacy.

Isn't your best choice when it comes to privacy to choose which services to use and which ones not to use, rather than relying on your government dictate rules they don't fully understand to companies which may put their entire business at risk? In other words, in terms of things you care about absolute data privacy may be #1 on your list, others may be willing to accept less privacy for an internet that can continue…

It's not as simple as choosing which service not to use - for example, people who have your details in their address book might inadvertently leak your data without your knowledge.

So while I agree that people should be free to trade privacy for other things like getting a free service, I do wish there are stronger regulations to protect people who choose to opt out. And better transparency on how your data is being used.

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#346

Post by CaptainZapp »

rconti wrote: post #255
juanmirocks wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Munich, Bavaria, and, to give an example, in most restaurants you will not be able to pay with a credit card. Having said that, you can pay once you reach a minimum amount with what they call an "EC-Karte", a sort of debit card.

Yup, this was quite surprising to me having travelled a fair bit but not been to Germany in 10 years or so. "I'm supposed to pay my dinner bill at a fancy restaurant.. in.. cash?"

  "I'm supposed to pay my dinner bill at a fancy restaurant.. in.. cash?"
There are a lot of really fancy places in Japan, which will not accept credit cards.

Nor will they - unfortunately - accept reservations in English.

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#347

Post by CaptainZapp »

notyourwork wrote: post #319
raverbashing wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last I heard, Uber works just fine in France > And in Germany you don't know yet what's living without cash and only with a credit card. That's on the Germans (especially Berliners), rest of Europe uses cards a lot more. And I'm glad the US finally took their head out of the sand and are using Chip Cards But yeah the cookie notice is pretty much useless (and I think it's been implemented badly by websites as well). N…

Can someone tell me as a consumer what benefit those chips provide? It’s slower and security isn’t my problem because fraud is covered by the CC company. So I still don’t get what the benefit is or how our heads are above sand now?

  It’s slower
In my experience it's definitely not. Especially when you pay contact less (something any chip containing credit card provides for the last few years) it's basically instantly.

  So I still don’t get what the benefit is or how our heads are above sand now?
You get the benefit that your card is accepted throughout the world. I don't think that you can use any chipless card in Europe, nowadays.

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#348

Post by kbart »

gradys wrote: post #134
RestlessMind wrote: post #99

EU is one of my best hopes when it comes to privacy and really wish they start going after tech behemoths. I have given up on US authorities doing anything to reign them in. And policies in other significant countries (eg. China) would be even worse for user privacy.

I'm torn on this. On the one hand, I agree, the EU legislates privacy to a degree that no other political entity does as far as I'm aware, but on the other hand, they often do so with poorly designed policies. As an example, I'd point to the cookie notices that appear on almost every major website, which must have absorbed, globally, many careers worth of man-hours to implement while offering virtually no real-world…

Cookie law was the only major f*ck up from EU on privacy. And it will be fixed as soon as GPDR is active. On the other hand, we have many successful and useful regulations and court orders. I don't think cookie law alone is enough to discredit EU in this fight for privacy.

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#349

Post by qubex »

zajd wrote: post #222
DannyBee wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"EDIT: I see you are fairly highly placed in Google. I'm quite surprised if you genuinely think what you wrote, given the raw numbers you must surely know, but given your legal training, I am not at all surprised that you would posture as if you were unaware of this." Character assassination, awesome! Please leave the company i work for this out of this, always. I never speak for my company on hacker news unless i sa…

This is probably the best way to prove his point for the record.

It’s probably my fault for adding the EDIT and providing the room to claim a personal attack. Still, it was a disappointing exchange.

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#350

Post by hrasyid »

randomsearch wrote: post #307
juanmirocks wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the grass is always greener on the other side. I'm European, and I sure miss my perceived greater freedom and innovation of economical activities in the US. Things like having UBER banned for example in France or Germany completely throws me off. And in Germany you don't know yet what's living without cash and only with a credit card. And those damn cookie notices!! Because they show up in every page, everybo…

Lost me here, but are you trying to say the US is ahead of the game in terms of card payments? Because the States is clearly miles behind the EU. Do you guys even have chip and pin everywhere yet? Last time I was over, you didn’t, and we moved onto contactless in the UK years ago.

I don't think the complaint is about how fancy the card is. It's about how easy it is to pay with cards. I'd say cards are much more ubiquitously accepted in the US than anywhere I've visited.
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