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Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

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Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A site that cannot exist without collecting not needed personal data and without selling out its visitors, has no justification of continuing to exist. Don't let them guilt-trip you.

Do you think anyone cares in the slightest about your 'personal data'? It's garbage and no one would waste energy for it, if it weren't for the ability to serve more effective advertisements. If I'm going to offer an application monetized with Ads, I'm going to use a big ad network like Google which requires cookies to personalize the ads and prevent fraud. I could not care less about collecting your personal data. A…

Well, without any personal data, FB/Meta and Google would have nothing. Their whole business model is selling the idea, that they are able to advertise better, due to them knowing things about people and their preferences or interests.

Obviously you need to consider what happens in the large.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#432
post #270

I get that too many regulations is a bad thing. But when we talk privacy and personal data there should be no gray zone. It has to be black and white. When I see a stupid cookie banner I search for "Reject all". There's no some data that companies can collect and process without my consent, they just shouldn't be able to collect anything without me actively opting in. Business never respects anything, but profits. Se…

Who is the audience your comment is trying to reach? Who are these mysterious "companies"? It's important to realize companies are made of people. Someone had to explicitly code the dark pattern in the GDPR cookie dialog. Ever notice the button for "Accept All" is big and shiny, while refusing all is more often than not a cumbersome, multi-click process? That's not an accident. That was coded by people. People around…

someone coded it once, everyone else just adds another dependency that fulfills the spec, they don't even have to search for "dark patterns", just "most effective"

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#433
post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regulations are like lines of code in a software project. They're good if well written, bad if not, and what matters more is how well they fit into the entire solution

In general you want as few as possible of both.

this is wrong for the same reason using single letter variable names to keep things concise is usually wrong.

i’d rather something a bit more verbose and clear than cryptic and confusing. there are many actors in the world with different brains.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#434
post #270

I get that too many regulations is a bad thing. But when we talk privacy and personal data there should be no gray zone. It has to be black and white. When I see a stupid cookie banner I search for "Reject all". There's no some data that companies can collect and process without my consent, they just shouldn't be able to collect anything without me actively opting in. Business never respects anything, but profits. Se…

They should have gone farther. Don't require the user's permission for non-essential tracking cookies. Just ban them outright. No opt in, no opt out, it's just straight-up illegal to track people unless they're actively using a signed in account.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#435
post #385
post #270

I get that too many regulations is a bad thing. But when we talk privacy and personal data there should be no gray zone. It has to be black and white. When I see a stupid cookie banner I search for "Reject all". There's no some data that companies can collect and process without my consent, they just shouldn't be able to collect anything without me actively opting in. Business never respects anything, but profits. Se…

I think I should be able to collect whatever publicly available data I can find.

But we are not dealing here with the public data. Stalking people, recording their every step and action so then you can sell their behavioural habits is not collecting public data, it’s stalking and invading people's private life.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure and that's why EU now has the weakest tech sector of any service industry and have become absolutely dependent on US and Chinese software instead. I cannot even use my official government ID application that is mandatory almost everywhere without signing on to Google or Apple, so much for data privacy and sovereignty.

This is pretty much untrue. Look at India, Africa, South America, Japan, Singapore, UK, Israel, the Arab world, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Norway, Switzerland, or Australia and compared to them the EU is doing just fine

You’re comparing the tech sector of the EU to that of Africa?

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#437
post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A major difference with regulations is there’s no guaranteed executor of those metaphorical lines of code. If the law gets enforced, then yes, but if nobody enforces it, it loses meaning.

If the law is code, then law enforcement is a JITter (joke)

Optimised compiler makes sense though.

Unenforceable laws go unenforced, undefined behaviour is undefined and varies based on compiler (law enforcement agency or officer).

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#438
post #270

I get that too many regulations is a bad thing. But when we talk privacy and personal data there should be no gray zone. It has to be black and white. When I see a stupid cookie banner I search for "Reject all". There's no some data that companies can collect and process without my consent, they just shouldn't be able to collect anything without me actively opting in. Business never respects anything, but profits. Se…

The trouble is that everyone else is pursuing tech unhindered by such regulations at breakneck speed, and Europeans realize that Europe - once the center of science and technology - is increasingly sliding into a backwater in this space and an open air museum. Now, some will agree with you and say that privacy should never be violated, but nonetheless accept a certain measure of tolerance toward that kind of violatio…

> sliding into a backwater in this space and an open air museum

Or a place that follows a different approach than "break it to make it" mad dash, that fosters a different - perhaps richer - culture with tech more aligned to people's needs, and overall healthier to live in. If there is a good set of regulations in place. And that is where EU is not consistent, and this backtracking not helpful.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cookie thing sounds good at first but then it shows that they rant to reduce cookiewalls by making more things ok without asking :(

Yes. I don't think you should have to show a popup to track the user's language preferences, whether they want a header toggled on or off, or other such harmless preferences. Yet, the EU ePrivacy directive (separately from the GDPR) really does require popups to inform users of these "cookies".

No it doesn't. A website's own preferences fall under the 'necessary for site functionality" exception.

Besides how many sites actually have this as the only reason for cookies? Every time I get a new cookie banner I check it and there's always lots of data shared with "trusted partners". Even sites of companies that purely make money off their own products and services and shouldn't need to sell data. Businesses are just addicted to it.

The only provision I like is that they may only ask once every 6 months. However personally I wish that they'd make it a requirement to honour the do not track flag and never ask anything in that case. The common argument that browsers turn it on by default doesn't matter in the EU because tracking should be opt-in here anyway so this is expected behaviour. The browsers would quickly bring the flag back if it actually serves a purpose.

I'll keep blocking all ads and tracking anyway.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#440

> One change that’s likely to please almost everyone is a reduction in Europe’s ubiquitous cookie banners and pop-ups. Under the new proposal, some “non-risk” cookies won’t trigger pop-ups at all, and users would be able to control others from central browser controls that apply to websites broadly. Finally!

I will believe this when I see it.
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