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USA needs law 'a lot like GDPR' says Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff

theregister.co.uk

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Re: USA needs law 'a lot like GDPR' says Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff

#101

Post by jimmaswell »

dbasedweeb wrote: post #74
Mahn wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if my startup does not require tricky or infelicitous shit with your personal data, but due to strict regulation I now require to hire a full time lawyer just to redact the company terms and keep up with regulations, and since my company does not yet make any revenue and I have no investors that means a lot more risk on my side, which in turns leads me to not start or not go on with that company at all? And what…

Is it really so hard to believe that people are all out of trust and goodwill at this point? It’s like having a classroom full of toddlers who all play with matches, and every few weeks they burn the whole school down. Finally the teachers makes rule: no one gets to play with matches. A couple of kids say they’re very responsible and never set fire to anything. Nobody cares.

I could say the same thing in reverse about regulations. Every few weeks some regulation ruins the internet even more and finally people are sick of the regulations.

Name one way your life was ever negatively impacted, in a concrete way and not just in your head, by companies using your data to create value in the form of targeted ads and such to keep websites free. I'm waiting.

Re: USA needs law 'a lot like GDPR' says Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff

#102

Post by [deleted] »

Mahn wrote: post #96
TAForObvReasons wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hope is that in a new regulatory landscape we will see the emergence of new companies. Just because the tech unicorns of the last 10-15 years, like uber and facebook, were backed on odious behavior doesn't mean that a more palatable business model won't be discovered.

Since when has more regulation translated in more entrepreneurship?

[deleted]

Re: USA needs law 'a lot like GDPR' says Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff

#103

Post by jakelazaroff »

dbasedweeb wrote: post #53
jrs95 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering that these rules don’t apply to governments, and that European governments generally seem to be slipping towards jailing people for thought crime, I’m skeptical as to how serious they are about privacy and control of personal data.

Please if you can, give one example of a European government jailing someone for a thought crime. To save us both time and aggravation please keep the actual definition of “thought crime” in mind, and don’t conflate it with something people actually did .

You seem to be under the impression that the act of communicating thoughts in some way precludes it from being "thoughtcrime". This is a ridiculously narrow and pedantic definition; we can't read minds. The term as it's generally used means being punished for expressing a particular viewpoint.

Re: USA needs law 'a lot like GDPR' says Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff

#104

Post by ufo »

Mahn wrote: post #96
TAForObvReasons wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hope is that in a new regulatory landscape we will see the emergence of new companies. Just because the tech unicorns of the last 10-15 years, like uber and facebook, were backed on odious behavior doesn't mean that a more palatable business model won't be discovered.

Since when has more regulation translated in more entrepreneurship?

Currently, honest companies that respect the user's data cannot compete with companies that try to profit as much as possible from our it.

I see this as similar to regulating pollution. Forbidding companies from cutting costs by polluting the air and the rivers allows for innovation and entrepreneurship in cleaner alternatives.

Re: USA needs law 'a lot like GDPR' says Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff

#105

Post by DanBC »

Mahn wrote: post #71
Frondo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like I said the last time this subject came up, fine. That's totally fine. I don't care which incumbents will be okay in a world with better laws around privacy. I want better laws around privacy. If your startup to unseat Salesforce requires doing tricky or infelicitous shit with my personal data, I don't want you to be able to operate, full stop. Your business shouldn't exist, if its existence requires schlepping o…

What if my startup does not require tricky or infelicitous shit with your personal data, but due to strict regulation I now require to hire a full time lawyer just to redact the company terms and keep up with regulations, and since my company does not yet make any revenue and I have no investors that means a lot more risk on my side, which in turns leads me to not start or not go on with that company at all? And what…

I don't understand why you think GDPR is any different from all the other laws that you must obey.

Re: USA needs law 'a lot like GDPR' says Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff

#106

Post by kodablah »

Let's try something different. How about a smaller law requiring transparency first (not even the ability to delete or how to handle the data or that you have to have a certain appointed position or any other nonsense). Just transparency at first. The transparency requirements can be detailed, as food labeling is, but it doesn't need to require companies to provide users their data (just yet). Then, begin PSAs and public education awareness campaigns that show some of the harms of over collection of data, overuse of social media, lax approaches to information protection, acceptability of ad blocking solutions, etc (EDIT: rethinking this, I would no longer recommend this, at least at first). Then work on a law defining culpability of data breaches (i.e. data escaping its now-more-transparently defined intention). Also, consider grants to companies providing healthy privacy practices in the social media space (these should be small, measured, and for non-profits only of course). But I would just consider it, I wouldn't actually give them out just yet.

All in all, this can be done w/ steps that don't rock companies. Also, what we're going to find out is that people are happy with the tradeoff that currently exists and you can't legislate that away from them without pissing them off.

Re: USA needs law 'a lot like GDPR' says Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff

#107

Post by donatj »

dbasedweeb wrote: post #53
jrs95 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering that these rules don’t apply to governments, and that European governments generally seem to be slipping towards jailing people for thought crime, I’m skeptical as to how serious they are about privacy and control of personal data.

Please if you can, give one example of a European government jailing someone for a thought crime. To save us both time and aggravation please keep the actual definition of “thought crime” in mind, and don’t conflate it with something people actually did .

Within the last week the UK arrested and jailed a man for being a known right wing sympathizer in public. His crime? His mere existence might cause disruption.

Re: USA needs law 'a lot like GDPR' says Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff

#108

Post by mannschott »

dnomad wrote: post #69
wyldfire wrote: post #3

A consumer protection law like GDPR would probably be a good thing for US, but it's hard not to see this as SFDC saying, "As a multibillion-dollar SaaS vendor, we welcome regulation that might slow down or prevent a competitor from unseating us."

What you don't realize is that the lawlessness around user data hurts big corporations too. If you're a big corporation collecting significant data than you've taken on a significant liability but the nature of this liability is amorphous. How much will it cost you if your data gets hacked? What will be the impact if you share the data with a partner and the partner gets hacked? How much can you share in your api? Wh…

I'm not seeing "significant liability" in how even major data breaches have been handled in the US so far. Where are the fines large enough to be noticed for gross negligence? Where are the prisons terms for the captains of industry that set the priorities and determine the budgets that inevitably lead to such negligence?

Equifax? Yahoo? Target? Heartland? TJX? eBay? JP Morgan Chase? Adult Friend Finder? Locationsmart and the cell phone carriers providing real time location information on all of their customers to third parties?

A CEO of a major corporation The Land of the Free™, wouldn't consider liability for negligent data handling very seriously given the government's seeming lack of interest in seriously prosecuting same. S/he'd probably even argue that investing more in security would lower profits and harm investors. And we can't have that.

What am I missing?

Re: USA needs law 'a lot like GDPR' says Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff

#110

Post by mbesto »

dnomad wrote: post #69
wyldfire wrote: post #3

A consumer protection law like GDPR would probably be a good thing for US, but it's hard not to see this as SFDC saying, "As a multibillion-dollar SaaS vendor, we welcome regulation that might slow down or prevent a competitor from unseating us."

What you don't realize is that the lawlessness around user data hurts big corporations too. If you're a big corporation collecting significant data than you've taken on a significant liability but the nature of this liability is amorphous. How much will it cost you if your data gets hacked? What will be the impact if you share the data with a partner and the partner gets hacked? How much can you share in your api? Wh…

> How much will it cost you if your data gets hacked?

If I understand it correctly (IANAL), there are no penalties for getting hacked. Rather there are penalties for not having proper procedures for how to respond to a hack.

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