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Study: Google is the biggest beneficiary of the GDPR

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Re: Study: Google is the biggest beneficiary of the GDPR

#21

Is there any evidence of GDPR having the desired effect for which it was put in place? Is citizens' data being protected more than before? The second-order effects that everyone predicted are already happening (big tech companies change nothing significant, many small companies shutting down). The long-term and unforseen second-order effects have yet to bear fruit, as far as I know (please let me know if you've seen…

One nasty side effect is some large organisations are shutting out Europe. I can no longer access severs popular US based sites and instead get messages about the content not being available in your region. (Most recently: latimes.con and fox8.com)

Re: Study: Google is the biggest beneficiary of the GDPR

#22

Is there any evidence of GDPR having the desired effect for which it was put in place? Is citizens' data being protected more than before? The second-order effects that everyone predicted are already happening (big tech companies change nothing significant, many small companies shutting down). The long-term and unforseen second-order effects have yet to bear fruit, as far as I know (please let me know if you've seen…

One positive effect you can already see: people think about privacy laws. Most of the GDPR was already law in various EU countries, just largely ignored by everybody. GDPR gave the laws more teeth and publicity.

For real improvements, we will have to wait a few years to find out what and who regulators will persue for violations, and how the courts interpret the GDPR. If regulators never look at small companies, the second order effects on small companies will vanish. If regulators miss to successfully prosecute the obvious violations by tech giants, no meaningful effects will stay at all. It all comes down to what regulators will do, and it's way too early to tell.

Re: Study: Google is the biggest beneficiary of the GDPR

#23
post #20

Plus it knocked a lot of potential competitors off the internet. I know multiple young startups and entrepreneurs in Europe that killed their projects/ideas because the additional burden of coping with GDPR was too much for them.

Really? Because I haven’t heard of any, and I live and work here. Any sources?

Re: Study: Google is the biggest beneficiary of the GDPR

#24
post #5

From what I've heard from people with Google and FB accounts, both basically ignored the law and presented their users with take it or leave it pop-ups on their online properties. That's why they're getting sued...

Are they getting sued? I'm not aware of any GDPR-related cases against Facebook or Google so far?

Re: Study: Google is the biggest beneficiary of the GDPR

#25

Is there any evidence of GDPR having the desired effect for which it was put in place? Is citizens' data being protected more than before? The second-order effects that everyone predicted are already happening (big tech companies change nothing significant, many small companies shutting down). The long-term and unforseen second-order effects have yet to bear fruit, as far as I know (please let me know if you've seen…

One nasty side effect is some large organisations are shutting out Europe. I can no longer access severs popular US based sites and instead get messages about the content not being available in your region. (Most recently: latimes.con and fox8.com)

That's also fine - was their content worth your privacy? If they can't be GDPR compliant we don't want them.

Re: Study: Google is the biggest beneficiary of the GDPR

#26

The author of this article didn't bother to read even a summary of the GDPR law. It doesn't matter what the user consents to, you cannot use their personal data ad hoc. You need to justify its collection, storage and transfer to the regulator, not the user. This is in contrast to the ill thought out cookie law where websites could get away with it by irritating consent banners. Sort of like, but not exactly the same…

> It doesn't matter what the user consents to That's not entirely true. If a user really consents to being tracked for advertising purposes, the GDPR allows tracking. Whether the consent banners inform users honestly about the extent of tracking is another question. I think they don't. What's worse is that Google still tracks users by default, even if they never visited an actual Google property, let alone have a Goo…

Somewhat tangential: have you seen GitLab’s notice? And what’s your opinion of that style, as far as informing/consent?

Re: Study: Google is the biggest beneficiary of the GDPR

#27

Is there any evidence of GDPR having the desired effect for which it was put in place? Is citizens' data being protected more than before? The second-order effects that everyone predicted are already happening (big tech companies change nothing significant, many small companies shutting down). The long-term and unforseen second-order effects have yet to bear fruit, as far as I know (please let me know if you've seen…

More companies go public when they get hacked

Re: Study: Google is the biggest beneficiary of the GDPR

#28
post #20

Plus it knocked a lot of potential competitors off the internet. I know multiple young startups and entrepreneurs in Europe that killed their projects/ideas because the additional burden of coping with GDPR was too much for them.

Like who?

Seriously. Besides that one blogger who was screaming because he didn't even want to bother with the help wordpress provided, I did not hear of a single person/company that quit because of that.

It would also be quite embarrassing considering the time you had to prepare, the help that is all over now or the fact that nobody seems to enforce it. Especially for businesses.

Re: Study: Google is the biggest beneficiary of the GDPR

#29
post #20

Plus it knocked a lot of potential competitors off the internet. I know multiple young startups and entrepreneurs in Europe that killed their projects/ideas because the additional burden of coping with GDPR was too much for them.

Really? Because I haven’t heard of any, and I live and work here. Any sources?

They are young single founders in the idea or mvc stage. So nobody that is mentioned by any sources.

Re: Study: Google is the biggest beneficiary of the GDPR

#30
Saying Google is the biggest beneficiary is grossly misleading. Their reach increased by a whopping 0.9% while everyone else's declined. Even if reach is the only relevant metric, that's hardly worth talking about.

The actual biggest beneficiaries are the citizens whose data is protected.

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