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Meta Ireland fined €390M for GDPR infringement

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21–30 of 31 posts

Re: Meta Ireland fined €390M for GDPR infringement

#21
post #8
post #2

TL;DR: When GDPR came into effect in 2018, Facebook and Instagram changed from asking for consent to use personal data to requiring that users enter into a contract with the company. The Data Protection Commission is siding with the complainants who say that making the service conditional on agreeing to the contract is the same as forcing users to consent.

And this case is successful, we might see real repercussions this time around, instead of a wave of cookie banners. On the other hand, we might also see way more websites willing to straight-out block EU users from accessing them. And they won't be missed.

Blocking a market of 447 million people simply because you need to ask them to click "agree" before you use their personal data (which most people do anyway) sounds like a bad business decision.

Re: Meta Ireland fined €390M for GDPR infringement

#23
post #11
post #9

And meanwhile, all the big newspapers in germany ask you to consent to individual tracking (and sharing to third parties) whenever you access their websites. Since they are not Meta, it seems to be completely acceptable. (Example: https://www.spiegel.de/ )

Are you saying that they force users to consent in order to access the sites, or are you making a totally ridiculous comparison?

The Spiegel home page shows - as a lot of other newspapers - either "subscribe to read ad free" or "read with ads and your datas will be sold"...

Actually, it's the best way for me to stop reading some newspaper...

In fact, less and less newspaper allow you to disagree to tracking and show only standard ads

Re: Meta Ireland fined €390M for GDPR infringement

#24
post #9

And meanwhile, all the big newspapers in germany ask you to consent to individual tracking (and sharing to third parties) whenever you access their websites. Since they are not Meta, it seems to be completely acceptable. (Example: https://www.spiegel.de/ )

Big German newspapers give you an option to allow their personalized ads or to pay a subscription to access their content. You have a choice. Besides, they are not tracking you everywhere. Spiegel will not care if you visited Zeit or Bild.

On the other side, Meta doesn't give you a choice. They and their numerous services are tracking you across the globe.

I would be happy if Meta refuses to provide you any of their services and track me across the internet unless I go to meta.com and accept their terms and conditions.

Re: Meta Ireland fined €390M for GDPR infringement

#25
post #8
post #2

TL;DR: When GDPR came into effect in 2018, Facebook and Instagram changed from asking for consent to use personal data to requiring that users enter into a contract with the company. The Data Protection Commission is siding with the complainants who say that making the service conditional on agreeing to the contract is the same as forcing users to consent.

And this case is successful, we might see real repercussions this time around, instead of a wave of cookie banners. On the other hand, we might also see way more websites willing to straight-out block EU users from accessing them. And they won't be missed.

As an EU citizen, I'll be happy if Meta would block me everywhere. Then I won't have to fiddle with various ad blocker and tracking blocker settings to make sure they are not getting anything from me.

Re: Meta Ireland fined €390M for GDPR infringement

#26
post #13
post #9

And meanwhile, all the big newspapers in germany ask you to consent to individual tracking (and sharing to third parties) whenever you access their websites. Since they are not Meta, it seems to be completely acceptable. (Example: https://www.spiegel.de/ )

Yeah, most of my GDPR complaints for some egregious behaviour just went to /dev/null (I guess because they were about local telecom and service companies, important for national interest). GDPR seems to be more and more about getting handouts from US companies and lacks an effective enforcement path for smaller violators.

How do you know that your complaints were ignored? The regulators in charge of enforcing GDPR are famously understaffed, some with multi-year backlogs.

Re: Meta Ireland fined €390M for GDPR infringement

#27
post #21
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this case is successful, we might see real repercussions this time around, instead of a wave of cookie banners. On the other hand, we might also see way more websites willing to straight-out block EU users from accessing them. And they won't be missed.

Blocking a market of 447 million people simply because you need to ask them to click "agree" before you use their personal data (which most people do anyway) sounds like a bad business decision.

And yet several companies did exactly that in 2018 after GDPR started being enforced in Europe.

Re: Meta Ireland fined €390M for GDPR infringement

#28
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that they force users to consent in order to access the sites, or are you making a totally ridiculous comparison?

The Spiegel home page shows - as a lot of other newspapers - either "subscribe to read ad free" or "read with ads and your datas will be sold"... Actually, it's the best way for me to stop reading some newspaper... In fact, less and less newspaper allow you to disagree to tracking and show only standard ads

[deleted]

Re: Meta Ireland fined €390M for GDPR infringement

#30
post #27
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blocking a market of 447 million people simply because you need to ask them to click "agree" before you use their personal data (which most people do anyway) sounds like a bad business decision.

And yet several companies did exactly that in 2018 after GDPR started being enforced in Europe.

Do you have examples? Wikipedia[1] only mentions these:

  Instapaper (restored service in the EU in August 2018)
  Unroll.Me
  Klout (went defunct in 2018)
  The Chicago Tribune (local newspaper)
  The Los Angeles Times (local newspaper)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regula...
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