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Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

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Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#961

Post by can16358p »

M2Ys4U wrote: post #261
can16358p wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! GDPR is a big block towards technological improvement. Do virtually any business that involves user registration at some point, and now you need to be sure that you're compliant with all those rules, spending limited resources on that to avoid ridiculous fines. It benefits only the big players who has lawyers to know exactly what to do and not, and a nightmare for anyone who tries to grow a small business or ha…

> GDPR is a big block towards technological improvement. It's exactly the opposite. It forces technology to be developed in a way that protects human rights (specifically the right to privacy). Innovation is not automatically good if you're innovating in the wrong direction. Think of it as a vector, not a scalar.

It was already non-invasive. I, as a conscious human being browse a website, use their (potentially free) services. The website can of course put a cookie and track me. If I'm really paranoid I could block cookies etc but regardless, no one forces me to use their website.

If someone pointed a gun and forced me to go to a website, enter my personal data and give my data to trackers that would be something else (still not website's fault but anyway).

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#962

Post by can16358p »

nickpp wrote: post #280
M2Ys4U wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> GDPR is a big block towards technological improvement. It's exactly the opposite. It forces technology to be developed in a way that protects human rights (specifically the right to privacy). Innovation is not automatically good if you're innovating in the wrong direction. Think of it as a vector, not a scalar.

Who is deciding what is the wrong and good direction to innovate in for everybody else?

Apparently some politicians in EU who has a grudge against US-based tech companies.

"Hey Google and Facebook is doing so well let's make harder for everyone using their services."

I neither have sympathy for those companies and never been to US, but adter all these GDPR regulations I actually started to sympathize.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#963

Post by can16358p »

nickpp wrote: post #146
kazen44 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the major other difference being that I can democratically elect who is part of my government. I cannot do this in a US owned corporation.

Government surveillance on citizens has a long history of horrifying consequences, especially in Germany. What is the worst corporations are doing with our data? Better ads?!

Yup. Governments already can access any data they want anyway. Sure, with access to big data collected from corporations that would be easier, but even without that, government can do whatever they want (unfortunately).

This harms companies, website owners trying to use services, and users (someone using my free site, I need to monetize it, targeted ads was a nice way, now I can't).

I see no upsides of actually protecting privacy.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#964

Post by nickpp »

Nullabillity wrote: post #914
nickpp wrote: post #733

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Businesses exists for consumers. Fragmenting hurts people - European users - in the first place. I see very little advantages from these privacy laws but I use and appreciate US businesses every day.

So if those businesses utterly refuse to serve consumers then they have no business existing?

They are definitely serving consumers, otherwise they would cease existing. They're not serving politicians and their pet cause of the day though.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#965

Post by can16358p »

xaltsc wrote: post #296
can16358p wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't referring to FAANG, I was referring to smaller devs/admins who try to keep up with analytics and don't have ridiculous amounts of money to work with lawyers to see what they are doing for analytics for the sake of improving their service might be landing them $1m fines for some new rule in some geographical locations.

Well, if they want to operate somewhere, they have to follow local rules. I doubt American companies wouldn't comply with American law, European law is no less important than the American one and I don't see a reason why we should be accommodating towards foreign businesses, especially, again, those of a country which is a threat. Big companies shouldn't serve as a model to follow.

That's the problem: web should be global and open: a website shouldn't be bound to laws of somewhere. It's 2022 and forcing following local rules for a web based global service only does harm to users (and the service).

A basic example: government of my country requested all data and payments to/from PayPal to be controlled by them, PayPal naturally rejected it, and they got banned from my country.

Now who is affected? Us! The whole world can use PayPal to send/receive money pretty much everywhere, but we can't.

These regulations and "needing to follow local rules" itself is alone a reason for a completely decentralized-countryless web to succeed.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#966

Post by can16358p »

ceejayoz wrote: post #339
can16358p wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't need to browse the free web as well, but they choose to do.

That's like blaming the people in Flint, Michigan for drinking the lead-tainted water.

You need to drink water to survive. You browse web voluntarily, picking the website you want to visit voluntarily and with intention to go there. No one dies if they don't visit a website.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#967

Post by jmnicolas »

luibelgo wrote: post #865
jmnicolas wrote: post #861

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think we (in the EU) will soon realise the bizarre consequences of these regulations. Wait until you see the result of the green revolution: you'll pay your energy 3 times more than now. We'll need decades to recover (if we recover) from this ideological move from people that lives in la la land and have no idea of the consequences of their acts. It already has started with natural gas prices skyrocketing. The Ru…

Out of curiosity, where did you get that 3x claim on green energy? And how is that related to Gas?

It was inspired by natural gas prices that went 3x this winter and an article that said we (French citizen) pay our electricity much more than what it cost us to produce because our production is sold on the markets then sold back to us at an inflated price (deepl should offer an OK translation even if it might lose a bit of the humor : https://institutdeslibertes.org/nous-avons-la-meilleure-fonc... ). I don't have data to say how much more will it be expensive, but I know it will be bad enough that we certainly will have protests.

You can't just delete nuclear, coal and natural gas power plants and think the invisible hand will provide. There is no secret plan behind: we're gonna crash then our politicians will blame the Russians and / or COVID but certainly not their incompetence.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to live in a polluted world more than anybody else, but I also want to take a hot shower daily without it being a luxury expense. We needed to think the transition and do it progressively before. Too late.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#968

Post by nickpp »

vault wrote: post #933
nickpp wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still waiting for those "pure tyrannies". Meanwhile every damn thing I am using in my daily life, from my car, computer to the furnace heating my house - was made by a corporation. And I did live under communism, with absolutely zero corporations. Then I knew tyranny every day. And shortages. Did Noam Chomsky live under communism by any chance?

The fact that you lived under a bad government, while sad, doesn't invalidate Noam's statement.

Maybe. But the fact that we haven't encountered those "pure tyrannies" anywhere sure does.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#969

Post by nickpp »

sweetbitter wrote: post #959
nickpp wrote: post #795

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last I heard, the NSA was a governmental agency, not a corporation.

And governments now outsource some of their functions to bigger corporations as a loophole around human rights- mass spying and censorship, for example.

Then let's fight the actual problems - the governments - and stop going after the decoys. Let's make it illegal for government to access and use business data. That will fight the actual problem while allowing businesses to keep serving us better.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#970

Post by anothernewdude »

VikingCoder wrote: post #667
xdennis wrote: post #581

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, it only forces those providers to have a European presence. We're not fragmenting the internet by looking after our own interests. This wouldn't be an issue if Americans viewed rights (and in this case privacy rights) as belonging to human being as opposed to Americans citizens. The US's policy is what led to this: > Agencies shall, to the extent consistent with applicable law, ensure that their priv…

You are absolutely fragmenting the internet. We had PII on Azure. We wanted to do business in France. We had to fork our services, and run a full stack on a crappy provider in France. They charged a lot more, would take weeks of vacation with zero support for us. It was a freaking nightmare. EDIT: I love the responses I'm getting. People are in absolute denial that this does in fact fragment the internet. You may bel…

So pass the cost of doing business in France on to the french.
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