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EU Parliament Civil Liberties Committee adopts position on CSAR

europarl.europa.eu

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Re: EU Parliament Civil Liberties Committee adopts position on CSAR

#51

Post by yreg »

rkangel wrote: post #26

This website is a throwback to a design choice that (thankfully) has mostly died off - choosing a mid-grey for your text, making it much more effort to read. I used to have Stylebot pinned to my extensions to fix it, but haven't had to do it in ages. Designers - please don't do this. (I think it comes from people designing on much higher contrast Apple monitors and not testing on anything else)

Ironically, your own (downvoted) comment on this site is even more difficult to read.

But you are right, the Tuta article has a contrast ratio of 4.35:1, which doesn't pass even the lower WCAG level (AA = 4.5:1).

Accessibility is important. We are all going to depend on it if we live long enough.

Re: EU Parliament Civil Liberties Committee adopts position on CSAR

#52

Post by qwytw »

madeofpalk wrote: post #30
eddtries wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you explain big Pharma lobbying to stop reducing drug prices? For example, Democrats who held up drug pricing reforms were the largest beneficiaries of lobbyist money. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/...

They don't feel strongly ideologically about an issue

Some do, unfortunately oftentimes it's the crazy ones that feel the strongest about things.

Re: EU Parliament Civil Liberties Committee adopts position on CSAR

#53

Post by JoshTriplett »

zakary wrote: post #21
eddtries wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you explain big Pharma lobbying to stop reducing drug prices? For example, Democrats who held up drug pricing reforms were the largest beneficiaries of lobbyist money. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/...

Everyone has a price, and drug companies can usually find a way to meet it for even the most steadfast

> Everyone has a price

Some people really do have principles they won't violate. We just don't get enough people in politics who don't have a price.

Re: EU Parliament Civil Liberties Committee adopts position on CSAR

#54

Post by bernardlunn »

eddtries wrote: post #24
eigenket wrote: post #4

Despite the lobbying from American organisations (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Palantir and others who worked with Thorn on this [1][2]) the EU Parliament did the right thing this time. [1] https://www.thorn.org/partnerships/ [2] https://web.archive.org/web/20130420162917/http://www.wearet...

The thing that I find shocking about lobbying is just how cheap it is. In the FTX trial the amount they spent lobbying politicians for pro-crypto laws was released and we're talking low five figures. SBF even said lobbying was very cheap for the impact you can get. Naively I thought it would cost millions to get a politician to support you but actually it's cheap enough a FAANG engineer could individually pay enough…

Wow!!

Re: EU Parliament Civil Liberties Committee adopts position on CSAR

#56

Post by bjornsing »

nehal3m wrote: post #13

I was upset at the parliament for even considering this and extremely relieved that they chose not to pursue this draconic instrument. That said, we as citizens will have to remain vigilant and let our voices be heard because the onslaught on our privacy is constant from both commercial interests, spy agencies and state actors. These parties have no issue keeping pressure up over decades whereas we the citizens can b…

Yes, and the sad reality is that even if each one of these absurd legislative proposals has only a 1% chance of passing, sooner or later they will. That’s just math / probability theory. We have to find some way of reducing the inflow.

Re: EU Parliament Civil Liberties Committee adopts position on CSAR

#57

Post by jacquesm »

yreg wrote: post #44
jacquesm wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlikely. What will happen is that instead of one big push to the EU they will try again on the local level. That's how companies abuse the EU all the time. First try to lobby the EU itself for a one-stop-shop approach, and if that fails they go after the member states.

Do you have examples? Ideally related to digital things or privacy. (Thanks)

Privacy is an excellent example. At first it was locally dealt with, and big tech would lobby the individual countries for all kinds of exceptions and ways to effectively get regulatory capture. Then, in 1995 the EU created the DPD.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Protection_Directive

Big tech and the advertising industry responded by sidestepping the new regulation to make deals with the individual countries to undermine it, and actually managed to get close to getting their way, and possibly to get it repealed completely.

https://www.nu.nl/internet/2849758/druk-van-lobby-opstelten-...

But the EU responded with the GDPR.

And now big tech is again lobbying and pressuring member states for exemptions, for example, Facebook:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/02/facebook-...

This is just venue shopping, can't get what you want in one place then you just fragment it and try to get multiple smaller deals. So I totally expect a similar thing to happen around this subject, the stakes are just too high for them to ignore the whole EU for their games.

Re: EU Parliament Civil Liberties Committee adopts position on CSAR

#58

Post by eddtries »

andrewinardeer wrote: post #45
eddtries wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that I find shocking about lobbying is just how cheap it is. In the FTX trial the amount they spent lobbying politicians for pro-crypto laws was released and we're talking low five figures. SBF even said lobbying was very cheap for the impact you can get. Naively I thought it would cost millions to get a politician to support you but actually it's cheap enough a FAANG engineer could individually pay enough…

That money is just to employ lobbyists and their associated expenses. I'm sure there is additional money for lobbying that is not on the books. Holidays, houses, good bullion, crypto, free memberships to exclusive clubs and the like that is gifted to politician's and their spouses by big industry.

So with regards to FTX these were listed in the same spreadsheet as "Gifts", and there were some, but we're still talking low five figures for the majority of politicians. And it's not like FTX were not willing to spend more, they spent $68M on Tom Brady and Giselle for a two year contract to advertise FTX, or $500k on hotel rooms for interns in Miami.

Re: EU Parliament Civil Liberties Committee adopts position on CSAR

#59

Post by qwytw »

theonlybutlet wrote: post #35

I'd love to know who was in favour of the new better proposal and who was in favour of the old proposal. A clear insight into their values. It's EU parliamentary elections next year, I'd nearly argue those supporting this new better proposal would be a good voting choice next year and to steer clear of those in favour of the old proposal.

Unfortunately only a tiny proportion of population in the EU keep track of what their MEPs are actually doing and most vote more or less the same way they'd vote in national elections (where I am it's more like an opinion poll preceding the 'real' elections which always happen ~6 months after the European ones).

Re: EU Parliament Civil Liberties Committee adopts position on CSAR

#60

Post by xsdu »

sebstefan wrote: post #34
waihtis wrote: post #12

I've become so jaded by the EU that was expecting the worst from this, so kudos Let's see how quickly it'll resurface again

I was jaded by this proposal as well, but jaded by the EU in general? GDPR, forced interoperability from gatekeepers, the 2 year warranty on anything bought online This attempt at breaking encryption completely stood out with the usual things The EU seems like the only governmental organization that's working well to improve my life, in my country. Everything else is either decaying or opposing my values.

I'm still bitter about their half-baked cookie law that instantly made web browsing a much worse experience, regardless of how well-intentioned it may have been.
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