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Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

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Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#971

Post by pas »

DocTomoe wrote: post #850
pas wrote: post #641

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you please explain the driving licenses part?

I'm not as miffled about that as others, but in Germany, licenses used to be forever (unless you yourself gave it back OR there was a court order, e.g. for a traffic-related crime). Enter the EU, and now licenses come with a renewal date, which is considered mostly a cash grab as you now have to buy a new copy every few years. A few weeks ago, there even was an attempt to have air-traffic-style medicals beginning at…

Hah, we already have those medicals in Hungary. Well, it definitely has some cash-grabby aspects, but - at least here - there's some real benefits to having a doctor think at least for 2 seconds about how someone's chronic conditions can and will affect them (and others!) on the roads.

People are getting glasses because the doctor told them that they need them for driving. People are getting regular blood sugar checkups because the doctors told them that driving with prediabetes is dangerous.

And even though I was surprised when they told one of my relatives that he only gets the license renewed for a few years and then he needs to get a checkup again, but he definitely fits the risk indicators. (Recently lost his wife after a very harsh and unfortunately unfair battle with the medical realities and the resource-constrainedness of healthcare, mental health problems, etc.)

...

regarding little things, I completely agree. This trade-off to have some environmental sustainability static look better at the cost of having far worse consumer experience doesn't make a lot of sense when we are not doing the obvious things to sweeten the trade-offs. (Ie. building more walkable cities, better insulation, better public transportation, yadda-yadda. But of course the European auto industries have a lot of influence.)

I think the rise of far-right is very well explained by the salience of immigration problems:

https://www.slowboring.com/p/a-boring-theory-of-the-populist...

Of course the usual consumer annoyances help fuel the populism/propaganda.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#972

Post by 1718627440 »

nomel wrote: post #944
1718627440 wrote: post #699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Private browsing is equivalent to creating an ephemeral browser profile everytime. It might get rid of more browser storage, but for how tracking works now-a-days, it is useless. It is only for what you want to store on your disk, not for how you want to be seen to remotes.

I'll admit I may have fallen for "private" browser marketing. Is this representative to current methods? https://coveryourtracks.eff.org I assume a subset of these bits could be used, meaning the "unique" or not claim of this test probably doesn't reflect if you can be tracked. I also assume that a VPN would help tremendously. For that test, as is, I get "unique" every refresh when using Brave Browser. With Safari an…

> I'll admit I may have fallen for "private" browser marketing.

The private claim isn't wrong, the threat model is just your spouse seeing that you watched porn and not at all about the remote party.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#973

Post by 1718627440 »

nomel wrote: post #944
1718627440 wrote: post #699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Private browsing is equivalent to creating an ephemeral browser profile everytime. It might get rid of more browser storage, but for how tracking works now-a-days, it is useless. It is only for what you want to store on your disk, not for how you want to be seen to remotes.

I'll admit I may have fallen for "private" browser marketing. Is this representative to current methods? https://coveryourtracks.eff.org I assume a subset of these bits could be used, meaning the "unique" or not claim of this test probably doesn't reflect if you can be tracked. I also assume that a VPN would help tremendously. For that test, as is, I get "unique" every refresh when using Brave Browser. With Safari an…

> https://coveryourtracks.eff.org

    Platform
    Linux x86_64

    One in x browsers have this value: 5.73
What? They just claim Linux has a marketshare of ~20%?

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#977

Post by Workaccount2 »

epolanski wrote: post #936
Workaccount2 wrote: post #884

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Joining the rat race isn't worth it, in the near-term, which is why the threat is existential. Europe has been sleeping on it's laurels for 30 years now, and the signs are clear; borderline stagnating economies, low working hours, generous benefits, and most importantly still relying on the exact same industries as 30 years ago . Europe totally missed out on the tech boom, and is now also missing out on the AI boom.…

> Look at the bottom Also look at the top ;) > Russsia invading Ukraine, and the US providing the majority of the weapons and cash That's beyond false, US provided little non-military help, the money mostly stayed in US and went to US contractors. I don't need to tell you that those figures are also insanely inflated by crazy costs. Zelenski himself has stated that he proposed multiple times to, e.g., send its navy t…

There is a reason they wrote this article:

https://www.kielinstitut.de/publications/ukraine-aid-how-eur...

But people at the ammo factory are going to have to work more than 4 days a week with 8 weeks vacation.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#978

Post by gonational »

epolanski wrote: post #828

I'm not understanding, as an European who's been part of multiple startups how's that supposed to boost growth. There's literally 0 startups I've been part of where data protection laws or even the infamous cookie banners have been anywhere near relevant (unless your business was literally profiling). In fact the actors that most opposed those laws have always been non Europeans. Sure, there is an attached cost in ha…

I know from the inside it feels like nothing is wrong, but if you're looking at the EU as a whole from the outside, the economies there have been coming apart for many years. You could even say the wheels have already fallen off. 100% of the economic woes in the EU are conferred by EU membership, and the web of inefficient, bureaucratic laws therein. Geographically speaking, Europe is positioned, perfectly, to be an economic powerhouse. It is close to the Middle East where much of the energy comes from, close to Africa where energy and other resources come from, close to Asia where certain base materials and manufactured components come from, surrounded by oceans everywhere, the Mediterranean has more than 1/5 of the world's coastline, giving ample opportunity to develop commercial ports, etc. The only reason the economies of Europe are in trouble is because of the EU. That is the only reason. The EU is the singular one only single reason. The EU. That is the single reason.

Cookie banners are just one tiny example that illustrates how death from 1000 cuts is a real thing. In the case of cookie banners, you could say it's death from 100 cuts, because, if you live in the EU, you spend probably one percent of your entire life clicking cookie banners. 7.2 minutes a day is all it takes to waste one percent of your productive life (assuming 12 hours of useful time per day). You might scoff at this, "I probably spend 10 seconds", but I spend probably a minute or more dealing with broken cookie banner garbage every day and I am an American. Just from American websites complying with GDPR nonsense, we have to waste some small portion of our lives here as well. Stupid laws written by stupider bureaucrats ruin everything for everyone. This is the description of an idiot by Dostoyevsky, somebody who does things that harm themselves and others.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#979

Post by paulddraper »

rckt wrote: post #270

I get that too many regulations is a bad thing. But when we talk privacy and personal data there should be no gray zone. It has to be black and white. When I see a stupid cookie banner I search for "Reject all". There's no some data that companies can collect and process without my consent, they just shouldn't be able to collect anything without me actively opting in. Business never respects anything, but profits. Se…

> they just shouldn't be able to collect anything without me actively opting in

That's exactly why things are the way they are.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#980

Post by IMTDb »

palata wrote: post #733
strken wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the point was the exact opposite: the regulation isn't enforced, which creates these absurd opt-out dialogue trees. If it were to be enforced fully, then anyone without a "reject all" button would be slapped with fines. Maybe even anyone who doesn't abide by the do not track/global privacy control headers.

Yes, that's what I meant. Also businesses are not people. People may not do illegal things "just because they are illegal" or because they want to be "good" (e.g. I agree that we should not litter, I wouldn't even need a regulation for that). Businesses are profit-maximising machines. If it it profitable to litter, a business will do it. The framework in which businesses maximise is set by regulations, which represen…

I still believe that even with a reject all button, the regulation is absolute bullshit. The sheer fact that the regulation forbids that setting to be done at the browser level (the law specifically mentions that the consent - or rejection - has to be specific for each website and thus cannot be "once and forget"), is absolute dogshit.

I turn out to be the CTO of a mid-sized SAAS business (100+ FTE over 3 continents), and neither I, any legal advisor, or any other C-level that I have ever met are discussing "what's the fine ? should we just pay instead of complying ?" when dealing with legal stuff. I do not know who brainwashed you into thinking that all businesses are just gonna disregard any regulation given the chance but that has not been my experience at all. I am not saying that none are doing it, but this really isn't the norm. The whole "people = good, business = bad" is just some kind of cozy metal construction that fits in a TikTok video, but that not how the world works.

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