Live data from Hacker News

Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

ca.finance.yahoo.com

261–270 of 635 posts

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#261
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, except the DMA specifically only applies to companies over a specific size. I think if the German newspapers were at FB/Apple scale, in terms of number of users, then the DMA would apply (i.e. they would be designated gatekeepers or similar) and they could also be fined. Although I think pay for no ads is also a violation of GDPR maybe?

Exactly. While DMA does not apply, GDPR does. But it gets ignored and weakened by decision against the letter and the spirit of the law - which does not surprise if you realize how much power those legacy publishers hold. Not so FB, not here at least. So it's not exactly the same regulation but pretty much the same situation. I'd also be pissed.

GDPR does not purport to outlaw targeted advertising. It just purports to require that the target consent.

In pretty much every other area of law in most of the world (including Europe) consent can be bought--the party requesting consent gives the consenter something in exchange for consent, and will not give that thing unless consent is given.

But under the rulings from some regulators that doesn't work for GDPR. Consent is apparently only considered to be freely given if withholding it would not result in any detriment such as not getting the same level of service or having to pay money for service.

If regulators want to outlaw targeted advertising it would be a lot better if they just did that, instead of making consent in GDPR work differently from how it has worked for pretty much everything else pretty much everywhere for centuries.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#262
post #241

> "This isn't just about a fine; the Commission forcing us to change our business model effectively imposes a multi-billion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service." Meta complaining about getting tariff'd is objectively hilarious.

> the Commission forcing us to change our business model

This is total, utter, complete 100% grade A organic nonsense.

I worked at FB (but the same is true of basically all action driven advertising systems). Only a tiny proportion of users ever click, but they are incredibly lucrative for online advertising platforms.

The whole subscription was a really transparent attempt to get people to accept the tracking and it's honestly profoundly depressing that this is what they're reduced to.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#263
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The opinion is so detached from reality that it’s not going to result in a useful discussion. There’s nothing about America in the consumer protection laws. It doesn’t matter if the service provider is a corporation or a non profit. You can have any opinion you want but if you don’t ensure the quality of it, people will call it out for what it is. In some circles you can defend lack of intellectual rigor with „any op…

> The opinion is so detached from reality that it’s not going to result in a useful discussion. Maybe you should try. > There’s nothing about America in the consumer protection laws. It doesn’t matter if the service provider is a corporation or a non profit. Thierry Breton and his "the sheriff is in town". Jean-Noël Barrot: "Apply with the Greatest Firmness" Axel Voss, German MEP, called for the EU to use the DSA aga…

>Maybe you should try.

If somebody claims the moon is made of cheese without joking, I'm not going to argue with them. I'm going to laugh them out of the room assuming.

Your opinion is like claiming the moon is made of cheese.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Europeans absolutely could, they're just too tight fisted to actually spend money on things like protecting privacy which is a major part of the whole problem. Users in the US don't care about protecting their privacy either. Examples: 1. Google Chrome market share in the US 2. GMail market share in the US 3. Google Search market share in the US

> Users in the US don't care about protecting their privacy either. They absolutely do, you just like to dismiss it as being about status. It was similar when RIM were on top in north america. The status came because of their association with business because they provided secure messaging. High status people care about privacy and security.

> They absolutely do, you just like to dismiss it as being about status.

No, they don't. I just gave you three counter examples.

Why is it that iPhone users prefer GMail over iCloud Mail?

Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/34197/share-of-us-respondents...

> The status came because of their association with business because they provided secure messaging.

Users have no understanding of security. High status or not.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not hold my breath. They are adept at malicious compliance. Cook will do a cost/benefit assessment and will come up with another workaround.

> They are adept at malicious compliance. They just got fined 500 millions for failure to comply so I'm not sure adept is the adjective I would use.

How much additional profit have they made based on their malicious compliance? I bet it dwarfs this fine.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#266

> while Meta drew a penalty of €200 million for its "pay or consent" advertising model, which requires that European Union users pay to access ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram Wait, isn't pretty much all web content is like this nowadays? You have to buy youtube premium to avoid ads, how is it different?

Pay or have your information harvested and sold. Its extortion.

You’re missing a third option there, which makes it not extortion.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

What is ugly or uncivil about noting someone's biases? The "your small businesses would fail without Meta" line is from the official lobbyist arm of Meta, and it's usually a pretty good tell that someone is a Meta employee and is thus likely to have a very rose coloured, idealized version of the org.

What do you achieve with that? Isn't it better to argue against the points made rather than argue against the person making them? Anybody could have made the same points.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook Marketplace is extremely popular depending on the city you’re in. It has taken the place of Craigslist for younger generations.

What surprises me is how much people on this site underestimate facebook. Facebook literally is the internet for millions of people. Facebook marketplace is far larger than craigslist and ebay combined, even if you take both of those at their respective peaks. The open web might seem huge, but it's actually dwarfed in size by Facebook.

Yeah, I often see claims online that Facebook is dead, Facebook is just Boomers posting pictures of their grandkids, etc. Maybe it's a regional thing, because where I live, everyone's on Facebook. Most small businesses, organizations, and communities here use it as their primary (or only) online presence for promoting themselves and staying in contact with their customers/members. Marketplace has completely replaced the old newspaper classified ads. That's unfortunate since the search in Marketplace sucks, but it's happened.

My family uses its messenger for organizing things because everyone has it, even if some of us rarely use it except for that. If I wanted to draw attention to something locally, whether it was promoting a service or running for office, I'd be a fool not to use Facebook.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook Marketplace is extremely popular depending on the city you’re in. It has taken the place of Craigslist for younger generations.

What surprises me is how much people on this site underestimate facebook. Facebook literally is the internet for millions of people. Facebook marketplace is far larger than craigslist and ebay combined, even if you take both of those at their respective peaks. The open web might seem huge, but it's actually dwarfed in size by Facebook.

> What surprises me is how much people on this site underestimate facebook.

It’s the classic disconnect between engineering and product management: When engineers don’t want a product and therefore conclude that nobody wants the product.

When I’ve brought up Facebook active user stats here in the past I got flooded with responses suggested Facebook was lying or manipulating their user counts to pump up the stock.

Post reply on HN