Live data from Hacker News

Dutch DPA fines Uber €290M because of transfers of drivers’ data to the US

autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl

351–360 of 414 posts

Re: Dutch DPA fines Uber €290M because of transfers of drivers’ data to the US

#351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does "upset" mean here? How does this human emotion "upset" apply to the European Union ? Is Uber "upset"?

[flagged]

As a US citizen residing in the EU, I can maybe play the role of an interpretor or anthropological informant. Your idea that the GDPR is just a kind of gotcha, as if the high fines were a kind of disingenuous speed trap, is a reflection of American distrust of our own government but is not a good model for understanding what is going on here.

The GDPR and high fines are an earnest reflection of the will of the European people not to have their private, personal information used in potentially harmful ways.

If I can be allowed to similarly anthropomorphize, the EU would honestly rather that US companies respect EU citizens' data rather than receive high fines. I know I would.

Re: Dutch DPA fines Uber €290M because of transfers of drivers’ data to the US

#352
post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes we are upset about American companies breaking the law and using unfair market advantage to get ahead. It's certainly not a win-win. The fines are a drop in the bucket.

Here you are on the internet which America invented, on an American website, complaining about how America is unfair, while they pay you billons of dollars in fines.

> Here you are on the internet which America invented

Oef, another poorly researched, oversimplified take on things. I'll throw you a bit of a bone, the prototype internet or the precursor to it is indeed mostly a US invention. The modern day internet has been shaped by many international contributions from a variety of sources. Tim Berners-Lee is an English computer scientist to give an obvious example. Not to mention that it is very likely you are viewing this on a wifi connected device, which is a Dutch invention.

Re: Dutch DPA fines Uber €290M because of transfers of drivers’ data to the US

#353
post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes we are upset about American companies breaking the law and using unfair market advantage to get ahead. It's certainly not a win-win. The fines are a drop in the bucket.

Here you are on the internet which America invented, on an American website, complaining about how America is unfair, while they pay you billons of dollars in fines.

> > > > > > > >

Re: Dutch DPA fines Uber €290M because of transfers of drivers’ data to the US

#354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that exactly the intended effect? Otherwise, why wouldn't BigCorp just ignore any inconvenient laws?

I don't understand, are you saying the intended effect of these laws is that non-EU countries don't enter the EU market?

Not necessarily, but it should "change the calculus of launching an existing product in Europe", factoring in privacy laws. Either don't launch, or make sure that your product complies.

Re: Dutch DPA fines Uber €290M because of transfers of drivers’ data to the US

#355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except there already alternatives to Uber

Uber is a poor example of dominant American companies. They don’t really have a moat and they don’t really provide a better service than the alternatives in Europe. I don’t think people would miss them much if they left.

The famous companies with a moat are Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon(AWS) since they're vertically integrated so no start-up stands a chance of competing or like Reddit and you hold a large userbase knowledge repository.

Food delivery companies, ride sharing companies, flight & boarding booking companies are all expendable. If one goes down, another one will spring up tomorrow.

Re: Dutch DPA fines Uber €290M because of transfers of drivers’ data to the US

#356

Funny they are being fined in the Netherlands, because Uber is almost invisible there, as regular taxis have been protected. I don't have accurate data, but it's at least 15€ per inhabitant, so it seems like a very very steep fine. I can't imagine how much this is per driver, €25000? It seems the dutch regulator is saying "why don't you just go away?". The feeling is likely mutual.

Uber HQ is in the Netherlands. They like the tax system here..

That's one way of saying "Europe is full of nations who provide unethical tax shelters for businesses (while criticizing any nation that doesn't provide their level of social programs), so they can regulate and fine and fill their coffers with money from businesses all over the world." But yeah, blame it on the companies that take advantage of the tax shelters EU nations choose to provide and the EU chooses to allow.

Re: Dutch DPA fines Uber €290M because of transfers of drivers’ data to the US

#357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an unconventional usage of "theft" in the "you wouldn't steal a car?" way. Could you explain how the Uber drivers are worse off due to their data being in the USA?

Well, they are UE citizens (at least a chunk of it). Following your reasoning, then the whole legislation is moot, and all European citizens data should be sifoned in the US without anyone complaining, because "hey, I'm in the UE so you cannot touch me", no?

I'm mostly objecting to the terminology.

Re: Dutch DPA fines Uber €290M because of transfers of drivers’ data to the US

#358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's much harder to fine companies that break the law if they make up a substantial part of your economy. Any evidence of this in the EU? EU courts and regulators seem to give no hecks about economy or reason. Data protection is great and all, but GDPR is a dumpster fire.

For example, look at the fines German car manufacturers "faced" in the EU when their emission-cheating scheme was exposed...

Volkswagen was fined at least 1.875 billion Euros in the EU [1][2].

[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/eu-fin... [2] https://www.reuters.com/article/business/volkswagen-fined-on...

Re: Dutch DPA fines Uber €290M because of transfers of drivers’ data to the US

#359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US definitely needs stronger laws here. Can someone clarify for me why the physical location where data is stored is a big deal? Why does the US need stronger laws here? This is probably just my inner naive technologist speaking, but I really enjoyed the moment of time during which the internet was a global network of computers that created a virtual space where physical borders were largely irrelevant. So it's…

Many countries have data residency laws (their citizen PII data cannot leave that country). https://incountry.com/blog/data-residency-laws-by-country-ov...

The U.S. needs this!

Re: Dutch DPA fines Uber €290M because of transfers of drivers’ data to the US

#360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has indeed. American companies basically finance the EU superstate bureaucracy. I'd like to see some reciprocity on the American side, fining EU businesses dollar for dollar.

Or at least stopping US tax money from subsidizing the EU in areas like defense.

How so? US administrations (both D an R) have been pushing EU states to spend at least 2% GDP on defense, and everyone understands that a significant fraction of it must be purchased from the US.
Post reply on HN