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Grindr to be fined almost €10M over GDPR complaint

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251–260 of 297 posts

Re: Grindr to be fined almost €10M over GDPR complaint

#251

So presumably the Norwegian government will be fined for publishing everyone's tax returns then :-)

There are 6 legal basis for collecting and processing personal data: Consent, legal requirements, vital interests, public duty, contract requirement and legitimate interest.

Collecting and publishing tax returns would fall under "public duty".

Re: Grindr to be fined almost €10M over GDPR complaint

#252

The GDPR has always amazed me. It changed the playing field from "you can use our free app as long as you give us data for marketing or not use it" to "you can provide a free service in the EU as long as you dont collect data for marketing or dont provide it" Without making a judgement on the merits of the approach, as a user/individual I appreciate the power this gives to protect my data. As a company/developer the…

> As a company/developer the conplexity of navigating the landmines that this poses makes me understand why a lot non EU companies decide to just block EU users. The only places I've seen actually do this are local newspapers in the US. Are there many other substantial companies doing this? In general, dropping the EU is an expensive game: it's 450 million people, including many rich developed countries. GDPR doesn't…

There are definitely a couple of big one. They get posted on here every now and then but I can't remember them because I'm in Europe and if they don't want me, I don't want them.

I'd rather not interact with a company that disrespects my privacy and it's rather helpful they have to tell me this up front.

Re: Grindr to be fined almost €10M over GDPR complaint

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Jein" (German for "yno"). Look at it in historic context. This article can be seen as an anti-holocaust clause. Don't collect data that was too often used to harm minorities.

Yet many data that aren't listed under it can also be used to harm minorities, and many data that are, can not. How exactly does biometric data to identify a person, but not a name and address to do the same differ in how much it can be used to harm minorities? They are both a means to uniquely triangulate the identity of a person, one is arbitrarily allowed but the other is not. It's as arbitrary as if not permittin…

A database of names and addresses does not tell you who in that list is a minority. You can't do:

    SELECT address AS to_harm WHERE sexual_orientation IN ('unusual');

Re: Grindr to be fined almost €10M over GDPR complaint

#254
post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like a fear of backlash - essentially if you find like 3% of the population with parking tickets it is fine. If you fine 40% to 60% then you get a large contingent pissed off at you - regardless of validity of the laws and enforcement unpopularity is perilous to laws and officials.

If 40% to 60% of population gets fined then that means the law is stupid* and should be abolished. Backlash on law enforcement is totaly understandable. *"stupid" is relative term. Laws are made for particular society, if almost a half of that society disagrees with the rule then it shouldn't be a rule.

With this logic, there's essentially no regulatory way out of local minima, lemon markets and such. And, the freemium for personal data mining model is very much such a situation.

And I don't think it's a fair statement that any large percentage of _people_ oppose this particular law; in my experience, most people don't seem to have a strong opinion about it, and those that do have a strong negative opinion very often don't really understand it (and are mostly reacting to the irritation that the various stakeholders are deliberately putting them through). Sampling the opinion of companies that live off ads is a bit like asking printer companies how they feel about toner prices.

Re: Grindr to be fined almost €10M over GDPR complaint

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No because GDPR has exceptions for state usage. Tax returns are not published but some key figures are available but you need to authenticate to retrieve it and it is logged and the log is available to the searched person.

The point is that comes across as hypocritical and makes the rationales come across as lies. "Consent for data sharing is important - except when we do it!" isn't a very good look even if there are valid reasons for tax return transparency it goes against their own stated principles.

You don't always need consent. There are 6 legal reasons to collect data. "Public interest" as with tax returns is one.

As another example, the post office is allowed to collect and process your address, since otherwise they could not fulfill their contract to deliver your parcel (contractual obligations).

Similarly, paramedics don't need to worry about asking for consent from a patient that is unconscious: They can look into their medical records based on "vital interests".

Re: Grindr to be fined almost €10M over GDPR complaint

#256
post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an advertiser, not true at all. Promoting products to any niche smaller than "man" or "woman" basically requires targeted advertising to make work.

Couldn't this be done based on content, without looking at personal data? "Here is an article on investment. How about I show an ad of an investment bank." If only one company does it, they lose. But if everyone is forced to do it, noone will lose.

In theory, yes, in reality, no. The strongest, biggest signal of what ads people will click is what kind of ads they clicked in the past. Content based ads have really bad performance comparably.

Re: Grindr to be fined almost €10M over GDPR complaint

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet many data that aren't listed under it can also be used to harm minorities, and many data that are, can not. How exactly does biometric data to identify a person, but not a name and address to do the same differ in how much it can be used to harm minorities? They are both a means to uniquely triangulate the identity of a person, one is arbitrarily allowed but the other is not. It's as arbitrary as if not permittin…

A database of names and addresses does not tell you who in that list is a minority. You can't do: SELECT address AS to_harm WHERE sexual_orientation IN ('unusual');

Neither does biometric data?

How can I tell minority status from a fingerprint or retinal scan?

It seems rather arbitrary to treat name and address differently from fingerprints.

I would argue that minority status correlates more heavily with name than with retinal patterns.

Re: Grindr to be fined almost €10M over GDPR complaint

#258

So presumably the Norwegian government will be fined for publishing everyone's tax returns then :-)

There are 6 legal basis for collecting and processing personal data: Consent, legal requirements, vital interests, public duty, contract requirement and legitimate interest. Collecting and publishing tax returns would fall under "public duty".

Yes they can legally do that but there is the "Confidentiality" part of the CIA Triad which is very important in terms of GPDR.

Re: Grindr to be fined almost €10M over GDPR complaint

#259

The GDPR has always amazed me. It changed the playing field from "you can use our free app as long as you give us data for marketing or not use it" to "you can provide a free service in the EU as long as you dont collect data for marketing or dont provide it" Without making a judgement on the merits of the approach, as a user/individual I appreciate the power this gives to protect my data. As a company/developer the…

As a company/developer starting from scratch, there is really no complexity nor landmines : Do as you say, Say what you do, Give the user options. You can offer the user the choice between targeted advertising or non-targeted. You can offer the user the choice between paid subscription or advertising. Cant get enough users to pay or consent ? Then you did not find market-fit in the real world.

Oh but GDPR is more than "don't do marketing". There´s stuff like "Right to be forgotten" that implementing controls for it would require a company starting from scratch to spend resources in "getting it right", and then you have things like backups, that may or may not fall in scope. And this is only one of the 8 rights that the GDPR provides.

Re: Grindr to be fined almost €10M over GDPR complaint

#260
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just looked up the relevant section in the GDPR, and it's actually pretty clear: It's section 9 "Processing of special categories of personal data" https://gdpr-info.eu/art-9-gdpr/ > 1. Processing of personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identif…

So any data that does not fall under that blacklist is free game? I still find that quite arbitrary to make that distinction, not to mention the wiggle room it leaves with many of those categories being rather ill-defined. At what point does an opinion become “political”? what is “racial” an “ethnic origin” is quite open to interpretation; when is a belief “philosophical”? The way I understand this paragraph, it coul…

> So any data that does not fall under that blacklist is free game?

No. That list are data that are considered especially sensitive, and so it's generally prohibited to process personal data of this kind. As far as I can tell it's the strictest part of the GDPR, so it's probably also the easiest to enforce.

If some data doesn't fall into these "special categories", the rest of the GDPR still applies. The GDPR applies to any data linked to natural persons.

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