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EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

reuters.com

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Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#2
In what I imagine is a brilliant twist of irony (I can't read the article), all I see when I open this page is a consent form to be tracked, with a link buried in text to opt out, which brings me to a page that requires me to fill in all of my personal details in order to opt out.

Apparently in order not to track me reading their web page, Reuters requires (among others) my full name, residency, date of birth, street address, and telephone number.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#3
post #2

In what I imagine is a brilliant twist of irony (I can't read the article), all I see when I open this page is a consent form to be tracked, with a link buried in text to opt out, which brings me to a page that requires me to fill in all of my personal details in order to opt out. Apparently in order not to track me reading their web page, Reuters requires (among others) my full name, residency, date of birth, street…

I see the usual OneTrust modal, with a giant, very easy to locate "Reject All" button at the bottom of the modal.

https://imgur.com/uZmlGlc

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#4
post #2

In what I imagine is a brilliant twist of irony (I can't read the article), all I see when I open this page is a consent form to be tracked, with a link buried in text to opt out, which brings me to a page that requires me to fill in all of my personal details in order to opt out. Apparently in order not to track me reading their web page, Reuters requires (among others) my full name, residency, date of birth, street…

For me (EU) the consent popup has "reject all" at the very bottom (though I only see it with blocking disabled). Pretty lame, but still better than most.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#6
Call me cynical but more regulation like this only serves to further entrench the existing (quasi-)monopolies by increasing the barriers for new entrants.

Especially the focus on "illegal" content and political advertising only (as opposed to, say, advertising as such) makes it appear not as an attempt to improve the situation in general, but rather to carve a bigger slice of the extant lucrative pie for certain interest groups.

> EDPS said gatekeepers should provide an easy and accessible way for users to consent or decline the use of their personal data by the companies for their other services, and that there should be tests to ensure personal data is effectively anonymous.

Users will consent to anything, especially if they have no choice, and any tests can and will be gamed. Ultimately if the problem is to be solved it would require a more novel approach than this.

> The proposed European Commission rules will need to be discussed with EU countries and EU lawmakers before they become law, a process which will take 16-24 months.

The implementation deadline seems excessively long to me. A lot can change within this timeframe, rendering the laws obsolete before they even come into force.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#7
post #5

At this point honestly I just wish for a general ban on tracking ads of any kind. Just give me good old contextual ads and remove some MBs of js, with the only purpose of tracking me, from most websites of the internet.

How would the EU enforce such a ban? They actually need to prove company X was tracking its users if it goes to court.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#8
post #7
post #5

At this point honestly I just wish for a general ban on tracking ads of any kind. Just give me good old contextual ads and remove some MBs of js, with the only purpose of tracking me, from most websites of the internet.

How would the EU enforce such a ban? They actually need to prove company X was tracking its users if it goes to court.

By setting very high fines for those who don't comply?

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#9
It is good to see regulation that diminishes the chance of monopolies or abuses. I don't know if current safeguards help such guarantees.

What could be interesting are economic incentives. For example, social networks profits could be taxed and part of the money acquired could be applied on independent de-centralized services. Imagine the impact if just a small amount of facebook profits were donated to wikipedia.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#10
post #2

In what I imagine is a brilliant twist of irony (I can't read the article), all I see when I open this page is a consent form to be tracked, with a link buried in text to opt out, which brings me to a page that requires me to fill in all of my personal details in order to opt out. Apparently in order not to track me reading their web page, Reuters requires (among others) my full name, residency, date of birth, street…

is there some extension to mark links like this? popups, paywalls, consent forms. all of these, I don't mind if the link is red or if their domain is entirely blocked. I'm immediately not interested in such websites and it would save me so much time
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