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Facebook and Google hit with $8.8B in lawsuits on day one of GDPR

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Re: Facebook and Google hit with $8.8B in lawsuits on day one of GDPR

#3
Zero surprise. Gonna be a bonanza for lawyers. We got patent trolls now we'll have GDRP trolls. I like parts of this law like being able to see all the data they have on me and actually delete it but imo you consent when you sign up for the service. Don't like what they are doing; Don't sign up. If this guy wins it legalizes freeloading which is theft by government. Infrastructure cost money and I get it FB has the scale to absorb some of the costs but a lot of companies likely won't when now they have to defend themselves from lawsuits as well as added compliance costs.

Re: Facebook and Google hit with $8.8B in lawsuits on day one of GDPR

#4
post #3

Zero surprise. Gonna be a bonanza for lawyers. We got patent trolls now we'll have GDRP trolls. I like parts of this law like being able to see all the data they have on me and actually delete it but imo you consent when you sign up for the service. Don't like what they are doing; Don't sign up. If this guy wins it legalizes freeloading which is theft by government. Infrastructure cost money and I get it FB has the s…

Nobody reads T&Cs. Company directors know that. Lawyers know that. They are rarely written in plain language and they obfuscate what the deal really consists of. Facebook/Google could easily write on their landing pages "We provide this service in exchange for use of your personal information". People who agree to that would be giving real, informed consent. Any of us that talk to non-geek, non-SV human beings know that most people don't understand the deal they're making when they sign up to these services, instead seeing Google/FB as some kind of supercool charities that make stuff for free just to be nice. Thankfully that's starting to change.

Pretending that clicking 'accept' under a page of legalese constitutes consent in any meaningful way is disingenuous and as a society we need to grow past it.

Re: Facebook and Google hit with $8.8B in lawsuits on day one of GDPR

#8
post #3

Zero surprise. Gonna be a bonanza for lawyers. We got patent trolls now we'll have GDRP trolls. I like parts of this law like being able to see all the data they have on me and actually delete it but imo you consent when you sign up for the service. Don't like what they are doing; Don't sign up. If this guy wins it legalizes freeloading which is theft by government. Infrastructure cost money and I get it FB has the s…

Nobody reads T&Cs. Company directors know that. Lawyers know that. They are rarely written in plain language and they obfuscate what the deal really consists of. Facebook/Google could easily write on their landing pages "We provide this service in exchange for use of your personal information". People who agree to that would be giving real, informed consent. Any of us that talk to non-geek, non-SV human beings know t…

The same logic can also be applied to virtually any contract you sign that contains pages and pages of legal text. Should the same rights be applied to legally binding contracts that require only a signature? Shouldn't there be a required intermediary that explains the full details of what your signing in a language you can comprehend?

Re: Facebook and Google hit with $8.8B in lawsuits on day one of GDPR

#9
post #3

Zero surprise. Gonna be a bonanza for lawyers. We got patent trolls now we'll have GDRP trolls. I like parts of this law like being able to see all the data they have on me and actually delete it but imo you consent when you sign up for the service. Don't like what they are doing; Don't sign up. If this guy wins it legalizes freeloading which is theft by government. Infrastructure cost money and I get it FB has the s…

>We got patent trolls now we'll have GDRP trolls

Do EU lawsuits require the plaintiff to pay the legal costs of the defendant if they lose? If so, I doubt we'll be seeing GDRP trolls unless those GDRP trolls are well financed and prepared to pay all of the legal costs.

Re: Facebook and Google hit with $8.8B in lawsuits on day one of GDPR

#10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody reads T&Cs. Company directors know that. Lawyers know that. They are rarely written in plain language and they obfuscate what the deal really consists of. Facebook/Google could easily write on their landing pages "We provide this service in exchange for use of your personal information". People who agree to that would be giving real, informed consent. Any of us that talk to non-geek, non-SV human beings know t…

The same logic can also be applied to virtually any contract you sign that contains pages and pages of legal text. Should the same rights be applied to legally binding contracts that require only a signature? Shouldn't there be a required intermediary that explains the full details of what your signing in a language you can comprehend?

>The same logic can also be applied to virtually any contract you sign that contains pages and pages of legal text

That's the problem, they took physical, real world products like Mortgage documents that were easy to understand, kept on paper and but had stipulations and they applied it to things like storing your information in some unknown company in some unknown country and relinquishing liability in the event your personal details ended up on the DarkWeb.

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