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Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

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Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#271

Post by whimsicalism »

Guid_NewGuid wrote: post #235
whimsicalism wrote: post #6

[flagged]

I went back and forth on downvoting. I rarely ever do and don't think it's appropriate in this case since you certainly, uhm, sparked a lively discussion. What I would say is you take a, let's say, free-market aligned source, and present what I'm assuming (it's behind a paywall) amounts to an opinion piece and make a bold statement "It is the lack of a predictable regulatory landscape in Europe that keeps them from b…

My comment was meant as a statement of opinion and a discussion-starting-off point, certainly not a statement of fact. Social "science" is incredibly hard, certainly nothing I'm saying is incontrovertible - it's very loosely held if held at all.

The Economist article was meant for associated reading of this strand of thought, not proof of what I am saying.

> What I will say is that, as an erstwhile European it brings me great joy to see the EU causing so many headaches for international tech companies in the name of consumer protection. Just my opinion.

I think [strides in average peoples' well-being] is worth celebrating more so than [schadenfreude and the righteous downfall of the evil]. Nietzsche wrote extensively on the flaws of the latter moral tradition in Europe (again, only offering an opinion).

Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#272

Post by jdiez17 »

jefftk wrote: post #68
britneybitch wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Personal data" as mentioned in the article includes more than just logging what posts you liked. I'm sure you knew that already.

My reading here is that an "instagram lite" that: 1. Showed you posts 2. Used what posts you liked to show you more posts you'd like 3. Also used that data to show you ads you're more likely to click on 4. Didn't give you a free choice on whether they did (3) Would still be illegal under the GDPR.

That’s my understanding as well. Point 4 being the key factor. They would have to ask, and give a clear yes/no option, on whether the user wants ads to be personalized based on their previous activity on the app (which posts they have liked, how many seconds they spent looking at posts, etc.) Otherwise, the ads would be based solely on the context that they are displayed in. Which seems perfectly fine to me.

Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#273

Post by from »

samwillis wrote: post #84
whimsicalism wrote: post #6

[flagged]

> lack of a predictable regulatory landscape in Europe It is predictable though, and has been clear for ten years. They are on the side of users privacy and clearly against invasive tracking and particularly profiling. Nothing has changed, these companies have been given ample warning, they didn't change or tried to skirt the issue and now they are facing fines.

You're implying the EU is this privacy guardian fighting these evil American tech companies. Except it was the EU who mandated data retention laws, the EU who banned prepaid cards over 150 euros, the EU who mandated countries release a public registry of who owns everything, and a substantial number of member states have mandatory key disclosure and SIM card registration laws. I don't really get the impression the EU cares about privacy all that much -- this ruling doesn't even ban targeted advertising, it just requires another popup that most of users will say yes to. To me this looks like a shakedown, especially when you consider that most of the tech regulations they pass have language that makes them almost exclusively apply to American companies (some only apply to companies with more than 50 million users etc).

Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#274

Post by Dylan16807 »

throw10920 wrote: post #236
ivan_gammel wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The simple answer to this and all consumer regulation related questions is information asymmetry. The service that wants to monetize privacy or other sensitive aspect of customer life is never disclosing information in a way, where customer would easily understand all the consequences. People do not speak Legalese, they do not understand technical details and they generally should not be expected to be experts in T&C…

This is orthogonal to the GP's post, which was asking "why can't people choose whether they want to pay for things with privacy" (paraphrased). The solving of information asymmetry is a necessary precondition to that choice, but after you've solved it, why shouldn't you have that choice?

You also have to make sure it's really a choice, for one. If I can't avoid the companies that require users to pay with privacy, that's a problem.

Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#275

Post by PoignardAzur »

29athrowaway wrote: post #241
no_time wrote: post #179

As an EU citizen all I can say is: Get fucked. I hope the EU grows a spine and actually doubles down instead of bowing to US pressure. >Fine for Meta more than tenfold from € 28 million to € 390 million. Third case on WhatsApp pending. Starting to get into a range for the fine that makes sense. Give it another tenfold increase and I'm content.

[flagged]

> The EU leadership is corrupt as fuck.

That's a hell of a claim to just casually throw out.

Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#276

Post by tinus_hn »

whimsicalism wrote: post #6

[flagged]

> Feel free to downvote if you feel, as per HN guidelines, that I am not contributing to the discussion.

No, I downvoted for complaining about downvotes.

> Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading

Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#278

Post by Dumbdo »

Cupertino95014 wrote: post #114

World party planning: China: I'll bring the hardware! US: I'll bring the software! EU: I'll bring the lawyers!

This reads like it's straight from the comment section of a Facebook post and is low quality even for HN's recent discussion culture.

Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#279

Post by kcartlidge »

29athrowaway wrote: post #241
no_time wrote: post #179

As an EU citizen all I can say is: Get fucked. I hope the EU grows a spine and actually doubles down instead of bowing to US pressure. >Fine for Meta more than tenfold from € 28 million to € 390 million. Third case on WhatsApp pending. Starting to get into a range for the fine that makes sense. Give it another tenfold increase and I'm content.

[flagged]

> They don't care about protecting citizens, they want $500m fines every month. The EU leadership is corrupt as fuck.

The EU don't get the fine money.

It goes to the Irish state. The same Irish state whose DPA has been trying to shield Meta through all this.

Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#280

Post by rybosworld »

LelouBil wrote: post #220
no_time wrote: post #179

As an EU citizen all I can say is: Get fucked. I hope the EU grows a spine and actually doubles down instead of bowing to US pressure. >Fine for Meta more than tenfold from € 28 million to € 390 million. Third case on WhatsApp pending. Starting to get into a range for the fine that makes sense. Give it another tenfold increase and I'm content.

I'm happy to be an EU citizen for all the great tech regulations that are actually passing here !

On the other hand, this seems like an easy way to avoid addressing Europe's lack of it's own tech industry.

If Europe wants more ethical tech, they should make an honest effort to create an environment that supports that. I.e., invest in their own tech industry.

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