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Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

express.co.uk

431–440 of 735 posts

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on the kind of website. If you're not advertising, selling anything, or otherwise doing any business through your website you're much more emboldened to not care about every jurisdiction. But if you're trying to make money through your website... well sorry you're doing business in those countries and I don't have a ton of objection to you needing to follow foreign laws. I'm fine with "balkanization" (I kn…

> But if you're trying to make money through your website... well sorry you're doing business in those countries. Say, I'm the provider... well sorry, you (the customer) are doing business with a foreign country (mine) and you should do it in accordance with YOUR laws about YOUR country's foreign trade. That's the only way to properly conform to jurisdiction, amirite? In other words, UK has no jurisdiction over US bu…

OK, but that's not true, pretty much anywhere. If it's illegal to provide a service to people in a country, it's illegal wherever your site is based. It may be hard to enforce, and in most cases the authorities won't try, but if it's serious enough then they totally will. This is the same basis for extraditing people who sell rootkits or CSAM, or for when the US imprisoned the bosses of European gambling companies on charges of providing services to US customers. BetOnSports was a listed companies in London, and sports betting is legal in the UK. Didn't stop the US authorities arresting and imprisoning the CEO for years when he took a flight that connected via Dallas. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8339338.stm)

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#432
post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck with that!

Do I detect some sarcasm in that response? If so, why? The Internet is literally just a communications protocol, adding a chat system on top of that it is not difficult. Nor even was it when Skype and IRC were made (by Europeans). SMS (also European) was slightly harder to invent because that's not on the internet.

The technical aspects of the software aren't the problem. Convincing enough people to adopt your app before you're getting a great deal on a 20sqft studio apartment is.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#433
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a country means you can make your own laws so the authority question has a pretty clear answer. Unless you disaviow national borders and state power and such stuff generally of course. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereignty

Read the question you're replying to again. Its a question about jurisdiction.

It was about authority, synonymous with jurisdiction, I understood it. A sovereign country can decide they have authority/jurisdiction in anything they want. For example various countries have decided they can legally assassinate people in other countries even though other counties might not agree.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But if you're trying to make money through your website... well sorry you're doing business in those countries. Say, I'm the provider... well sorry, you (the customer) are doing business with a foreign country (mine) and you should do it in accordance with YOUR laws about YOUR country's foreign trade. That's the only way to properly conform to jurisdiction, amirite? In other words, UK has no jurisdiction over US bu…

OK, but that's not true, pretty much anywhere. If it's illegal to provide a service to people in a country, it's illegal wherever your site is based. It may be hard to enforce, and in most cases the authorities won't try, but if it's serious enough then they totally will. This is the same basis for extraditing people who sell rootkits or CSAM, or for when the US imprisoned the bosses of European gambling companies on…

In other words, might makes right. Law is only as valid as the implied violence if you break it.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#435
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not specific to the UK: many developed countries are cracking down on Internet businesses. There's going to be an awful lot of regulation, and it will be incompatible between different countries. The one-model-fits-the-whole-world style of business is over: you're going to be confined to national borders again. The opinion polls are clear: the normies want this.

> The opinion polls are clear: the normies want this. Giving normies the vote was a mistake.

Allowing the media to be controlled by government interests, which the normies follow blindly as thinking is hard, was the bigger mistake.

Opinion polls are bullshit and just an indicator of propaganda effectiveness.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#436
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a few months ago games built by US-based developers, sold on US-based platform with payments processors also US-based were censored by actions of Australian christian activist group. Simply by sending some threating letters to payment processor management. It was done by few hundred fanatics who want to censor what content everyone is allowed to access. Since this is possible, there not enough resistance and UK…

Im not sure how they can enforce this?

Blackmail. No actual jurisdiction over companies or management needed if you can just threaten them something bad happen to them.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If big tech wants a reaction, pull all investment out of the UK. Microsoft + Google + Amazon + Nvidia + Meta + Apple = $630 billion in annual operating income. They'll react to a change in capital investment faster than anything else.

I'm sure the UK would cope. They did ok without them less than 30 years ago. Damage to stock value would be the bigger blocker (from both sides of the pond). Might kickstart some actual competition though, as that happening would create a large hole to fill.

The world was a very different place 30 years ago.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be much better to not block them rather serve them a single screen that explains why the rest of the site is unavailable to them citing the specific laws that make the action necessary

Now: > {"data":{"error":"Content not available in your region."},"success":false,"status":400}

It’s hilarious that imgur is still returning JSON errors even when connecting with a browser. I guess their dev team have never heard of the Accept header.

(My residential IP is blacklisted for some reason and I always get a JSON error message from them)

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The notion that a 17 year old cannot consent to user tracking is absurd

That’s because you’re looking at this ass backwards. The law determines an age at which a person is considered capable of making legally binding agreements, like providing consent. In the UK that’s 18, with some exceptions. It would be absurd for the UK to create a special exception to allow underage youths to consent to user tracking at an age lower than the standard age for legal consent in any other context.

The UK is considering making a special exception for underage youths. A pretty big one at that: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c628ep4j5kno

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#440

I don't think these laws are being made with the will of the people. There's been no groundswell of opinion, no technically minded authority pushing expert opinion. The same people lobbying for the online safety act were pushing age verification tools. The government is exceptionally unpopular, even by the standards of already deeply unpopular governments in recent years. I despair of the situation in the UK. How hav…

I’ll take your relative minor concerns over privacy over the freedom less, police state the US is becoming.
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