Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Study: Google is the biggest beneficiary of the GDPR

cliqz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 140 posts

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

#31

Post by Cthulhu_ »

TekMol wrote: 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.

It's not that big a burden - just have an officer and don't collect certain types of data without the user's consent. If you can't do that minimal amount of effort and either ensure the user's privacy, or get the user's consent, then you shouldn't be in the business.

It's like complaining about how new credit card businesses or banks can't just start up but need a load of compliancy. That was tried with cryptocurrencies and billions of user's monies was lost due to poor security and scummy companies.

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

#32

Post by Drakim »

kristianc wrote: post #11
Drakim wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I go to a random website and they serve third party google ads, I don't have a direct relationship with Google in that scenario. It's not enough to say that because I have a gmail account I consent to being tracked all over the web on every website.

You don’t have a GMail account, though, as there’s no such thing as a GMail account. You have a Google account, and GMail is bundled in as a service. FWIW - ‘tracked all over the world on every website’ also comes with some significant caveats.

Nothing about what you are saying here is related to my point though.

If I use one product of google, it does not mean they have a "business relationship" that entitles them to tracking me as a third party on random websites.

And even if it somehow did, I could merely opt to not be part of that, and neither the website nor google can deny me service for opting out. That's one of the main aspects of GDPR, you can't make a service conditional on clicking "I agree" and signing away all your rights.

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

#34

Post by mattlondon »

Is Google the biggest "beneficiary" here, or is it more that a lot of shady operations were totally shafting people on their data/privacy and so they've finally had to close down or expose themselves to massive legal risks?

The significant drop in trackers on EU sites reported here (and not a huge surge in Google trackers on EU sites) suggests to me that it is other adtech/tracker companies that have lost, rather than google gaining.

Either way, it is good to see some hard figures on tracking being rolled-back a bit. Now we just need some enforcement to fix the badly-implemented consent-walls (e.g. slate.com).

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

#35

Post by Jyaif »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #25
yardstick wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> was their content worth your privacy?

What privacy was I losing?

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

#36

Post by nwellnhof »

ericdykstra wrote: post #8

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…

The GDPR isn't only about the Internet economy. It affects offline businesses as well. You start to notice things like a plumbing company asking for consent to use your contact data on a paper form. The fact that people think a lot more about data protection and privacy is a good thing in itself.

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

#37

Post by seszett »

TekMol wrote: 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.

I've read that many times here, but it's weird because I don't know any. None of my neighbours, clients or partners have had any significant problems with GDPR, in a kinda large tech complex in France (with about 300 startups, though of course I don't interact with all of them).

Maybe you mostly have relations with startups that work in the ad industry?

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

#39

Post by rdlecler1 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #25
yardstick wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe you don’t but can you speak for everyone? The poster seemed to think that was undesirable.

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

#40

Post by icebraining »

mattlondon wrote: post #24
blub wrote: 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?

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/max-schrems-f...
Post reply on HN