Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google’s GDPR Workaround

brave.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 629 posts

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#141

Post by mamon »

inlined wrote: post #102
mamon wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's not about "income brackets", it is about profit margins which can vary a lot between industries. 4% of revenue is enough to bankrupt traditional business, like Wallmart with profit margins of 2,48%. Google is a low-cost business, with profit margin of 25%, so even the maximum GDPR fine is something they can just write off.

So just make the fine a portion of profit? Maybe a three layer system that takes into account flat euro rate, a percent of revenue, or a bigger percent of profit; whichever is highest.

Making fine a percentage of profit would be even worse: Amazon, for example has no taxable profit at all, so the GDPR fine for them would be $0 (or $20M, which does not make much difference). And having different fines for different industries, based on gross profit margings could be viewed as discriminatory, and therefore ruled illegal.

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#142

Post by stareatgoats »

NullPrefix wrote: post #49

>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.

> Companies do actually employ shills to go on forums and try to sway public opinion

I'm inclined to believe you, but sources please. Especially interested if you (or anyone) have anything on Google in this respect.

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#143

Post by kodablah »

rvz wrote: 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…

A reasonable debate about your privacy concerns cannot be had if you take the most extreme response and pretend it represents what you are or what everyone thinks you are.

You are assuming you were branded by a large swath while similarly branding an entire company that is clearly represented by many diverse opinions on diverse products. The debate needs more nuance lest everyone pulls out their broad brushes while also taking offense to receiving a fleck of paint. Conflating the Go proxy w/ Google's ad business is a perfect way to ignore nuance in the debate downplaying the real, tangible effects.

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#144

Post by ahallock »

amelius wrote: post #64

Targeted ads are already a serious leak of information. If somebody looks over my shoulder and sees the ads presented to me, they can infer things about me. Also, if a malicious actor targets an ad to a group of people, and some of these people buy the advertised items, then the actor can infer things about those people not necessarily related to the items sold.

> If somebody looks over my shoulder and sees the ads presented to me, they can infer things about me.

You have to take some personal responsibility, though. If they saw your Youtube recommendations or your Spotify playlist, they'd probably make inferences as well. That porn link in your history you forgot to clear? Be aware of who's watching and browse anonymously if you're concerned.

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#146

Post by captainbland »

derefr wrote: post #106
tboyd47 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I would guess that those are, more often than not, not paid shills but rather just people who like taking devil’s-advocate sides in arguments “for fun”, i.e. just for the challenge of seeing if they can construct a valid rebuttal to a comment. (I say this because I believe I’ve done this myself more than once, and I know my personality-type isn’t uncommon on HN.)

I feel like on a place like this site where there are occasionally job postings and networking opportunities, there's an element of "my comments are my CV/resume" which biases some people towards defending/advocating for companies just in case it affects their career prospects.

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#147

Post by aphextim »

auslander wrote: post #134
ethbro wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wide-ranging thoughts and examining what-ifs makes you a curious individual. Failure to counterbalance confirmation bias by critically examining and deconstructing your own hypotheses makes you a crackpot. The main difference between the two is just which paranoid thoughts you give credence to.

What?

It appears he differentiated being paranoid, and being a critical thinker.

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#148

Post by cheschire »

stareatgoats wrote: post #142
NullPrefix wrote: post #49

>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.

> Companies do actually employ shills to go on forums and try to sway public opinion I'm inclined to believe you, but sources please. Especially interested if you (or anyone) have anything on Google in this respect.

https://www.reddit.com/r/shills/

It's not going to be entirely legitimate but there's going to be some eye opening items in there for you I suspect.

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#149

Post by tantalor »

amelius wrote: post #64

Targeted ads are already a serious leak of information. If somebody looks over my shoulder and sees the ads presented to me, they can infer things about me. Also, if a malicious actor targets an ad to a group of people, and some of these people buy the advertised items, then the actor can infer things about those people not necessarily related to the items sold.

"somebody looking over your shoulder" can see a lot more than you ads, like your private messages, bank info, medical info, etc.

Re: Google’s GDPR Workaround

#150

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

glogla wrote: post #123
peterwwillis wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What about for creating and keeping up a global surveillance-capitalism system where billions of people are tracked, profiles, stripped of their privacy and manipulated, thus disrupting democracy and civic society?

[flagged]
Post reply on HN