so, all the software companies need to do is implement also SMS feature in their messengers like Signal does for instance and they will be immediately interoperable, while keeping their own messaging service separated
EU negotiators agree new rules to rein in tech giants
281–290 of 351 posts
Re: EU negotiators agree new rules to rein in tech giants
#282Did I interpret correctly that I’ll soon be able to install a multi-protocol IM app on my iPhone without going through the App Store ? I can barely believe it. It looks monumental in terms of competition potential.
The primary feature will be end to end decryption.
Yep, because we have absolutely no way to do e2e encryption without closed protocols like GPG.
Re: EU negotiators agree new rules to rein in tech giants
#283Earlier quoted context omitted.
Small correction: the indie devs just building cools shit are fine under GDPR. The indie dev who wants to monetize his community while not caring about the externalities of possibly leaking their information has a headache. If your business model depends on creating undesirable externalities for your "users" then you don't have my sympathy. The only shame is that we still need to enforce GDPR properly on large player…
What's the limit that an indie could go without caring about GDPR. Is it actually until they want to be "commercial"?
Until they start saving PII that is not necessary for their core business relationship with the user.
If your app is literally about self quantification and the user pays you to collect that data and keep it private? You might not even need to state it anywhere, although the safe thing is of course to list all the ways you do or do not collect data.
If your app is about self quantification and you monetize by selling user data or its aggregates... GDPR. If you use a third party data provider instead of hosting the data yourself: GDPR etc. Because user data might not be important to you, but it is to your users, so you probably shouldn't be allowed to YOLO handling it
Re: EU negotiators agree new rules to rein in tech giants
#284> Parliament also succeeded in convincing the Council of interoperability requirements for messaging services, meaning outfits such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or iMessage will have to open up and interoperate with smaller messaging platforms. For group chats, this requirement will be rolled out over a period of four years. This would be great. I remember using pidgin back in the day and it was really convenient…
Should mandate interoperability for all social media.
Seems like it does, but the size restrictions are crafted so it only applies to Facebook/Meta and not any of the smaller platforms.
Re: EU negotiators agree new rules to rein in tech giants
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are serious fines attached ( up to 10% of global turnover, 20% for repeat offenders) so it will have plenty of teeth.
GDPR was up to 4%. As far as I know, this was never applied to anyone. I would expect the same here. Fines will likely be somewhat reasonable.
The EU handles fines differently than the US. While the US applies harsh singular punishments early on, the EU gives slaps on the wrist at the beginning but will relentlessly punish companies that repeatedly break the law. This can end up costing companies more than 4% because they will be fined over and over again.
Re: EU negotiators agree new rules to rein in tech giants
#286> Parliament also succeeded in convincing the Council of interoperability requirements for messaging services, meaning outfits such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or iMessage will have to open up and interoperate with smaller messaging platforms. For group chats, this requirement will be rolled out over a period of four years. This would be great. I remember using pidgin back in the day and it was really convenient…
I wouldn’t be surprised if the response was a Chrome-esque “drown the competition in feature velocity” approach. iMessage could add new features (with totally necessary payload shape updates) fast enough to prevent any integrations from working well and competing effectively. Throw in some EME-style approval-requiring binary blobs to enable decryption and a dash of CSAM-style regulation compliance and open vs closed…
Hopefully regulators catch on to that crap.
Re: EU negotiators agree new rules to rein in tech giants
#287Earlier quoted context omitted.
"the government" lol > Your wild edge case is someone else's life and living. Yes, the person whose name is mangled by a shitty bank's IT systems. Or the people who can see what a shitty data vacuuming company has on them( that now has to ask for consent beforehand). Regulations are there to protect people like that, not just for fun.
In the 20th century 151,000,000 people were killed by "the government". lol? Maybe don't laugh about people that kill people for power. https://hawaii.edu/powerkills/DBG.CHAP1.HTM
"government" isn't a monolithic entity. You can't compare the EU, USA, or a random dictator in Iraq or Congo. Trying to imply they're the same and that they're all somehow inherently bad is libertarian bullshit that fails a basic sniff test.
The article you've linked is obviously biased ( why does it make a point of talking about totalitarian communist regimes and their death toll and not any other totalitarian regimes'? Some of the most infamous and deadly totalitarian regimes aren't communist - Iran's Islamic one, Saddam in Iraq, Hitler, Mussolini). And the argument that totalitarian regimes are bad because they wage war and that democracies can't even execute serial killers falls apart when the US is brought in. I won't even bother with the rest.
Re: EU negotiators agree new rules to rein in tech giants
#288It will be fun to see how tech companies will react when they get to taste their own “my platform my rules” medicine.
Seems like you are arguing that Apple should be able to choose which government it wants to run under when using the France platform.
Re: EU negotiators agree new rules to rein in tech giants
#289Pretty funny to think that Apple has been going on about their platform without realising that they run on the EU's legislative and societal platform. Which also comes with rules.
Pretty funny that you think it's ok for EU government monopoly to enforce rules but not ok for Apple to do so, despite not being a monopoly. Which is it? Are rules ok or not ok?
Re: EU negotiators agree new rules to rein in tech giants
#290Honestly? Looks good. They only missed one: must provide human support for any and all products and supported services. Google/MS/Apple have 0 user support for account/app suspension/removal and we have seen many stories here on how final those things are, and without any recourse possible
Pretty sure a ton of companies would cease to exist if they had to provide human support. Maybe that's a good thing, but really all it would do is strengthen incumbents who can afford the massive call center bill.