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Facebook will ignore data collection ban issued in Germany over WhatApp rules

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Re: Facebook will ignore data collection ban issued in Germany over WhatApp rules

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany would do well to ban all advertising based services. Fuck them all!

A huge chunk of internet is supported by some form of advertisement, then they will start blocking germany. Good luck finding a search engine working without ads.

If ads were illegal, there would be a search engine without ads. Unless either 1. web search is not worth the money it costs to provide or 2. markets don't work.

Re: Facebook will ignore data collection ban issued in Germany over WhatApp rules

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany ist’s a small State. It‘s basically the most powerful nation in Europe. I can‘t see any benefit for Facebook from this. There is a line of thought that Germany decides lots of EU decisions, could we see Facebook banned from the EU? Unlikely, Facebook will probably back down like they did with Austraila, but if things keep escalating after a Germany ban I think an EU ban would be talked about.

Perhaps Facebook believes that the regulator has stepped beyond its legal authority and would prefer to have a court decide the matter? It's a pretty normal thing. Bureaucrats may be powerful, but, in countries I'm familiar with, they are limited by the law in terms of what actions they may take, what justifications they must provide, and the reach of their decisions' force. Facebook appears to be wagering that this…

> Perhaps Facebook believes that the regulator has stepped beyond its legal authority and would prefer to have a court decide the matter?

Then they can contest the injunction and if wasn't justified, it will be revoked. But they can't just ignore it.

Re: Facebook will ignore data collection ban issued in Germany over WhatApp rules

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps Facebook believes that the regulator has stepped beyond its legal authority and would prefer to have a court decide the matter? It's a pretty normal thing. Bureaucrats may be powerful, but, in countries I'm familiar with, they are limited by the law in terms of what actions they may take, what justifications they must provide, and the reach of their decisions' force. Facebook appears to be wagering that this…

> Perhaps Facebook believes that the regulator has stepped beyond its legal authority and would prefer to have a court decide the matter? Then they can contest the injunction and if wasn't justified, it will be revoked. But they can't just ignore it.

Apparently they can just ignore it, though, at the risk of whatever consequences would apply. I confess I do not know the details of the legalities around this particular injunction, whether it behaves like an American injunction, etc. I notice that not a court but a commissioner issued this injunction, and not even a commissioner with authority over all of Germany, but one just within the (state? province? municipality?) of Hamburg. I'm not sure whether that is of any import but it does seem odd to me.

Like, if the city of Atlanta had a privacy commission and ordered Facebook not to do something, Facebook would probably just ignore that since cities in the U.S. do not have the power to regulate interstate commerce. I have no idea whether the same type of limitation exists in this case.

Presumably Facebook weighed the risks before going ahead. We'll see if their decision turns out to be the right one.

Re: Facebook will ignore data collection ban issued in Germany over WhatApp rules

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany ist’s a small State. It‘s basically the most powerful nation in Europe. I can‘t see any benefit for Facebook from this. There is a line of thought that Germany decides lots of EU decisions, could we see Facebook banned from the EU? Unlikely, Facebook will probably back down like they did with Austraila, but if things keep escalating after a Germany ban I think an EU ban would be talked about.

Facebook and governments are very experienced at spinning news in a way that makes them look good. The Australian government was looking for mandatory negotiations with media companies, forcing them to pay for content. They relaxed that "mandatory" clause a bit and added longer periods for notification and negotiation. In the past year, Facebook has signed revenue-sharing deals with most of the major news platforms i…

which is, imho, a loss for journalism integrity in australia. The media law was instigated by the incumbent media conglomerate in australia, to prevent revenue leakage to google, but still allow the utilization to bring in traffic etc.

Google, and the other tech companies should've strong armed, and threaten to quit (and perhaps, actually do) displaying _any_ australian media outlets in their search engines.

I think google didn't want to play chicken because the fees they are asked to pay is relatively small (given their size), and a fight with the aus gov't would've been a bit ugly (because it's an indirect fight that the media conglomerate has managed to strong arm the gov't to fight for them). Alas, it wasn't meant to be, and Google (and others) deemed it a small price to pay - what a letdown for ordinary australians and a huge win for the entrenched media conglomerate in australia.

Re: Facebook will ignore data collection ban issued in Germany over WhatApp rules

#66

Facebook would rather be booted out than remove data collection, because they (probably correctly) have determined that a service like theirs cannot exist without advertising unless a global ban is created. If they are banned in Europe, the new service will be pay to use in order to generate revenue. In which case, nobody outside Europe would use it. In which case, barely anyone inside Europe would use it. Facebook k…

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Re: Facebook will ignore data collection ban issued in Germany over WhatApp rules

#67

Facebook would rather be booted out than remove data collection, because they (probably correctly) have determined that a service like theirs cannot exist without advertising unless a global ban is created. If they are banned in Europe, the new service will be pay to use in order to generate revenue. In which case, nobody outside Europe would use it. In which case, barely anyone inside Europe would use it. Facebook k…

Read about some German history. You think they can’t handle a megalomaniac in charge of a website?

Re: Facebook will ignore data collection ban issued in Germany over WhatApp rules

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically... yes. But the $1/year was AFAIK not enough to cover costs.

Interesting, so this is a lower bound on the value of your data!

I mean you can look up what companies make on you in their financial reports. Pinterest as an example makes about <$10 per user per year from ads.

Re: Facebook will ignore data collection ban issued in Germany over WhatApp rules

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany ist’s a small State. It‘s basically the most powerful nation in Europe. I can‘t see any benefit for Facebook from this. There is a line of thought that Germany decides lots of EU decisions, could we see Facebook banned from the EU? Unlikely, Facebook will probably back down like they did with Austraila, but if things keep escalating after a Germany ban I think an EU ban would be talked about.

Perhaps Facebook believes that the regulator has stepped beyond its legal authority and would prefer to have a court decide the matter? It's a pretty normal thing. Bureaucrats may be powerful, but, in countries I'm familiar with, they are limited by the law in terms of what actions they may take, what justifications they must provide, and the reach of their decisions' force. Facebook appears to be wagering that this…

What Facebook really believes is that they can escalate this and buy themselves a few months even knowing they will eventually loose. Whether or not it is eventually enforced, they’ve bought some time and they can easily afford the cost.

Re: Facebook will ignore data collection ban issued in Germany over WhatApp rules

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the new service will be pay to use in order to generate revenue. In which case, nobody outside Europe would use it. In which case, barely anyone inside Europe would use it. WhatsApp previously was a paid app and had 500 million paying users.

It had 315M DAU: https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/31/whatsapp-hits-1-5-billion-...

DAU doesn't really matter when you aren't selling attention, the number of paying customers is what matters. TC lists 450 MAU, and this article is where i got the 500 million figure from, which is also listed as MAU [0].

[0] https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/032515/whats...

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