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Google’s GDPR Workaround

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Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#71
post #56
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fine is already kinda big for GDPR (4% global rev for big companies) but Google has gotten away with way worse on way more regulated fronts i.e. their antitrust case which slapped them on the wrist. If GDPR wants to be effective they need a ridiculous company-breaking fine for big abusers like COPPA and the like. Something like a per-user fine for violations that means they either can't do business in the EU or t…

>Google has gotten away with way worse on way more regulated fronts i.e. their antitrust case which slapped them on the wrist. Although I feel that Google has won its position in search, etc by offering a legitimately better product, we need to punish companies that continue to break the law. Success does not put you above the law. If you use your massive profits to absorb fines for breaking the law repeatedly, you s…

I agree!

IMO, punishing data abusers can't be solved with data privacy laws. It's a regulation with very little ability to be enforced.

In the first place to abuse data you need a lot of it, so really we're looking mostly at big companies with big pockets. The easiest way to attack here is to punish unfair markets and to have stronger antitrust laws.

Let's look at the textbook case for privacy with Facebook. Facebook would be the prime candidate for antitrust no matter how you look at it: there are basically no competitors to it in the US social media market. They own everything except Snapchat, which is dying off and failing to turn a profit. Facebook accounts for so much presence in the US that they have login buttons you can integrate on different sites (Google does too because of how crazy cemented they are). Yet somehow besides being so obviously monopolistic and out of control they're hit with no antitrust. Bell was split up for doing much less.

Antitrust is just a joke right now. We have to get better enforcement first before looking to create regulations to be enforced.

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#72
post #7
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my (admittedly limited) understanding, this is not actually legal under the GDPR. Certainly the alleged (but not demonstrated) behind-the-scenes trading of personal info isn’t, but the shared id is also personally-identifying information, and directly regulated.

It is very not legal, but I think the parent was saying these regulations are more onerous to small dev shops rather than Google and the fine for this will be minuscule. Hopefully companies will find paths to revenue that do not require selling out there users to this level, maybe by just having ad auctions without any identifying information at all.

Like it or not. Currently the internet would not exist without the ad-supported business model. Regular users expect everything on the internet to be free. I know people that categorically refuse to buy a 1-dollar app. It‘s starting to change now with people getting used to subscription models (Netflix, etc). But it will take a while until we start paying for news again, for example. Apple news + and google news initiative are a step in the right direction. Even if it‘s just for aggregate sub management.

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#73
post #13

What is sad is that the EU commission doesn't take real action against Google. At best we are to expect a slap in the hand, at worst, the investigations will drag on and nothing will happen.

Sure you didn't mean to say that what's actually sad is that the US federal government/DoJ doesn't take real action?

FTC fined Facebook $5 billion this year for mishandling users’ personal information. The SEC fined them $100 million.

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#74
post #11

Snippets from the article: > The evidence further reveals that Google allowed [...] > Google has no control over what happens to these data once broadcast [...] Is it possible that Google does have "control" over the data after broadcast, albeit legal control via contracts with advertisers (as opposed to technical control)? Perhaps Google's GDPR compliance strategy relies on the participating advertisers to comply wi…

The real time bidding on ad placements seems like a thing that a user could never give consent to as it's literally feeding your info to a massive ever churning list of companies that get to bid on it. Aka - you land on a site, it send your IP and whatever identifiers it has to 10,000+ companies who all then figure out if they want to bid on showing you an ad.

Do you have to give consent for each individual third party your data gets shared with? I’d thought that if you give consent for some purpose, the company can use whatever processors it wants as long as it ensures they protect your privacy.

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#76

>I was branded as a 'privacy nut' Companies do actually employ shills to go on forums and try to sway public opinion. They call them something like public advocates, doesn't change the idea though.

Should their point of view just not be heard then, in such discussions?

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#77
post #58

>I was branded as a 'privacy nut' Companies do actually employ shills to go on forums and try to sway public opinion. They call them something like public advocates, doesn't change the idea though.

I get the feeling this is much more prevalent than any of us realize. Would explain why most comments seem ridiculous.

You mean how there are somehow always commenters in every topic ready to leap to the defense of China and major US tech companies?

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#78
post #8

It's really funny to see that yesterday, I was branded as a 'privacy nut' after the release of Android 10 as I was concerned about the privacy issues that are in Android. Then the Go modules proxy issue around the Go Programming language that raised suspicions about tracking usage statistics around downloading modules turned on by default without any consent and now this. I think there are some folks at Google who ha…

> branded as a 'privacy nut' Only the Paranoid Survive. A book by The President and CEO of Intel. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Grove

Great book! Read it prob 20yrs ago.

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has been fined a 5 billion dollar fine already last year, that claim simply isn't true. But I agree with the implicit demand, they clearly haven't gotten the message. The EU should slap them with billion dollar fines again until they learn their lesson.

The executives should face jail time. That would certainly light a fire under Google's ass to finally "do no evil".

Jail time? For telling companies what kinds of shoes you shop for on Amazon?

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#80
post #60
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is being quoted in every comment but if you have enough lawyers anything is possible. Google has come out of antitrust cases relatively unscathed. They've even violated GDPR itself once before explicitly, and got out with a 57MM$ fine. This case won't be any different than all the other times that Google has blatantly violated laws and walked away with a slap on the wrist. I would be very very very shocked if th…

I mean, that's an entirely different class of problem. If the law literally doesn't work because of reasons, then that's just systemic corruption.

I would argue that it's the same problem and the reason GDPR is privacy theater.

It's a lot of regulations that can be worked around and the fines are hard to and rarely enforced. There are a bunch of poster children of GDPR fines that make it seem like it's doing a lot but the principal abusers (i.e. Google) just walk away with a light slap.

It needs the ability to be enforced, and I think this much should be obvious to lawmakers -- a law that can't be enforced well is useless.

That's why I'm calling it privacy theater. It's the EU saying "look what we did!" but in practice it doesn't really do much without enforcement that still does not exist both at a national and global scale.

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