I wish him more luck than he had with California Proposition 8.
Brendan Eich Writes to the US Senate: We Need a GDPR for the United States
21–30 of 238 posts
Re: Brendan Eich Writes to the US Senate: We Need a GDPR for the United States
#221) I don't agree. I prefer to have GDPR in Europe, no GDPR in the USA, and see which turns out to be better for human rights. I suspect that GDPR will very soon start to be used by corrupt politicians and other criminals who want "to be forgotten" for their misdeeds (ie, censor us when we want to remind the public). 2) I can't help but notice that GDPR is a great idea for Brave / BAT. And look: I'm long on BAT (I'm n…
Ironically, I want an ad-blocker that hides all GDPR consent popovers, cookie warnings, etc. They are constant annoyance, especially on mobile. Also a browser that automatically uses a VPN when an American news site blocks European IPs.
Cookie "warnings" and forced "consent" popups (with no or difficult opt-out) are not GDPR compliant. GDPR mandates that all tracking and related bullshit should be opt-in. So the annoyance isn't the GDPR, it's the lack of enforcement of it that allow shit websites to get away with not being compliant.
Re: Brendan Eich Writes to the US Senate: We Need a GDPR for the United States
#231) I don't agree. I prefer to have GDPR in Europe, no GDPR in the USA, and see which turns out to be better for human rights. I suspect that GDPR will very soon start to be used by corrupt politicians and other criminals who want "to be forgotten" for their misdeeds (ie, censor us when we want to remind the public). 2) I can't help but notice that GDPR is a great idea for Brave / BAT. And look: I'm long on BAT (I'm n…
> It seems to me that people are working to find ways to improve their lives, and that they'll keep doing so to the shegrin of the internet behemoths absent any "regulation"
I'd agree with you if ad & tracking blocking was mainstream, or even better, built into major browsers & operating systems and enabled by default. We are not there yet (and might never be since a major OS developer - Google - has a vested interest in keeping the cancer that is called advertising alive) so we need regulation.
Re: Brendan Eich Writes to the US Senate: We Need a GDPR for the United States
#241) I don't agree. I prefer to have GDPR in Europe, no GDPR in the USA, and see which turns out to be better for human rights. I suspect that GDPR will very soon start to be used by corrupt politicians and other criminals who want "to be forgotten" for their misdeeds (ie, censor us when we want to remind the public). 2) I can't help but notice that GDPR is a great idea for Brave / BAT. And look: I'm long on BAT (I'm n…
> GDPR will very soon start to be used by corrupt politicians and other criminals who want "to be forgotten" for their misdeeds GDPR isn't the right to be forgotten, it's mainly about ownership of customer data, consent & privacy. You can have a look at this developer guide: https://techblog.bozho.net/gdpr-practical-guide-developers/ for what it means as a developer.
> GDPR isn't the right to be forgotten, it's mainly about ownership of customer data, consent & privacy.
I'm not sure if you're making a humorous observation about how the "right to be forgotten" is not a legitimate form of privacy. If you are, bravo.
If you're not, and you are actually unaware of article 17, please see this link:
Re: Brendan Eich Writes to the US Senate: We Need a GDPR for the United States
#25The practical effect of GDPR seems to me that I have to click away about half a dozen consent popups every day. Sometimes a cookie warning in addition to that.
If I use Private Browsing (to protect my privacy) I am punished with more popups. If I open a website within a browser shell on mobile that doesn't have my cookies (some kind of webview of an app), I am punished with more popups.
Am I expected to look at every one of those dialogs and figure out what I have to click to "customize" my tracking?
Then there are the technical problems; one of those consent "solutions" that you see around actually shows a spinner while your "preferences are being saved". Sometimes it never closes.
I am frankly already so tired of this that I don't even care to look which of the buttons says "Agree" and which one says "Refuse". I just click on whatever I see. I know for certain that for less experienced users (my parents), every additional button to click is just another hindrance to achieving what they need to do. The thought "what if I click the wrong thing" is a permanent companion of their computer use.
These are very real, very concrete negative effects of GDPR. Is there something that we gained to make me feel better next time I am annoyed with all the popups?
Re: Brendan Eich Writes to the US Senate: We Need a GDPR for the United States
#261) I don't agree. I prefer to have GDPR in Europe, no GDPR in the USA, and see which turns out to be better for human rights. I suspect that GDPR will very soon start to be used by corrupt politicians and other criminals who want "to be forgotten" for their misdeeds (ie, censor us when we want to remind the public). 2) I can't help but notice that GDPR is a great idea for Brave / BAT. And look: I'm long on BAT (I'm n…
> It seems to me that people are working to find ways to improve their lives, and that they'll keep doing so to the shegrin of the internet behemoths absent any "regulation" I'd agree with you if ad & tracking blocking was mainstream, or even better, built into major browsers & operating systems and enabled by default. We are not there yet (and might never be since a major OS developer - Google - has a vested interes…
> I'd agree with you if ad & tracking blocking was mainstream
But isn't Eich making the argument that it is mainstream? That's the whole reason I'm quoting him here.
Which is it?
Is Eich correct that the "enormous growth of ad-blocking by people across the globe" is evidence of some desire on the part of a global community to fight back on the ability of internet giants to track us?
If so, isn't this evidence that this phenomenon is already "regular" without needing any further "regulation" by the state?
He's trying to eat his cake and still have it.
Re: Brendan Eich Writes to the US Senate: We Need a GDPR for the United States
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
> GDPR will very soon start to be used by corrupt politicians and other criminals who want "to be forgotten" for their misdeeds GDPR isn't the right to be forgotten, it's mainly about ownership of customer data, consent & privacy. You can have a look at this developer guide: https://techblog.bozho.net/gdpr-practical-guide-developers/ for what it means as a developer.
> GDPR isn't the right to be forgotten, it's mainly about ownership of customer data, consent & privacy. I'm not sure if you're making a humorous observation about how the "right to be forgotten" is not a legitimate form of privacy. If you are, bravo. If you're not, and you are actually unaware of article 17, please see this link: https://gdpr-info.eu/art-17-gdpr/
I'm aware of this article, it's only for personal data (and especially targeted against data leaks & data gathering in its wording), you can't take off an article of the BBC with that. It's nothing like the French law about the Right to be forgotten.
Re: Brendan Eich Writes to the US Senate: We Need a GDPR for the United States
#28The practical effect of GDPR seems to me that I have to click away about half a dozen consent popups every day. Sometimes a cookie warning in addition to that. If I use Private Browsing (to protect my privacy) I am punished with more popups. If I open a website within a browser shell on mobile that doesn't have my cookies (some kind of webview of an app), I am punished with more popups. Am I expected to look at every…
TL;DR yes, yes you do; the sites have to ask for explicit content, and that's the patterns they use to give you (or, the EU) what you/they want (fine-grained control over what they can use your data for). In practice, it's not something people care about because they just want to get to the content and don't care about the cost. The EU / GDPR and internet rights activists care for your sake.
Of course, these fine grained access controls are also a dark pattern, make it annoying and look difficult just so you consent. There's even a few out there that take a minute with a spinner going "Please wait, storing your preferences..." even if just hitting "accept" is instant. As is "cancel". Dark patterns.
Re: Brendan Eich Writes to the US Senate: We Need a GDPR for the United States
#29Somehow, I feel like the old, unregulated internet was better. I wonder if that is just nostalgia or there is something to it. With an unregulated internet, any internet user has to take care of their own privacy and anonymity. Barriers for entry for new websites and services are very low. Data breaches and abuses of data can lead to users being concerned about giving their data to tech monopolies, which can enable c…
> any internet user has to take care of their own privacy and anonymity.
Easy to say, hard in practice when there's some really dodgy shit going on and given that most people don't actually (want to) dive into the subject, this isn't something that can apply to the modern age.
I mean while I agree, you postulate some libertarian ideal - freedom for all on the internet. And while I agree, there's some scummy companies that take liberties with that - and when they have a data leak, it's your information that's out there, despite your own protection.
I mean you could advise people to use an adblocker, but when said adblockers are exploited (so that advertisers can be unblocked if they pay a fee, mafia like schemes), or when the creator takes the money and hands over the code and effectively silently-auto-updating backdoor into the user's machine, they're fucked - not because of your best intentions, not because of their ignorance, but because something outside of their control.
When there's a big government with the power to shut down companies looming over there telling people to not allow said breaches in the first place, you'll be better off.
Re: Brendan Eich Writes to the US Senate: We Need a GDPR for the United States
#30The practical effect of GDPR seems to me that I have to click away about half a dozen consent popups every day. Sometimes a cookie warning in addition to that. If I use Private Browsing (to protect my privacy) I am punished with more popups. If I open a website within a browser shell on mobile that doesn't have my cookies (some kind of webview of an app), I am punished with more popups. Am I expected to look at every…
> These are very real, very concrete negative effects of GDPR
Your annoyance is misplaced. Don't be annoyed at GDPR: be annoyed at all the companies who have spent the last decades building an entire web-infrastructure with zero respect for user privacy. We built massive amounts of technology infrastructure that just assumed that privacy and tracking wasn't an issue. Why do these websites need all these cookies in the first place? If I'm visiting a random blog with no advertising on it, why is it asking my for cookie consent? What possible purpose could that cookie serve, except tracking users?
As an analogy, imagine taking a black-light to a hotel room and realizing that the room is absolutely filthy. Would you be angry at the black-light for revealing the filth to you? Or would you be angry at the hotel, for not properly cleaning up?
If cookie consent forms or GDPR compliance forms annoy you, don't blame GDPR. Blame the sites that have no regard for your privacy and make no effort to comply beyond throwing up annoying prompts.