[HN Gopher] Study claims Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Study claims Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft work to derail
       data rules
        
       Author : LinuxBender
       Score  : 287 points
       Date   : 2022-05-29 14:08 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theregister.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theregister.com)
        
       | alaricus wrote:
       | You needed a study for that?
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | de6u99er wrote:
       | Time for the FTC to act and split ip those larg enterprises.
        
       | blocked_again wrote:
       | No wonder newspapers are going bankrupt.
       | 
       | Summarised such a complex topic in 12 words.
       | 
       | And I can't even summarise my function refactoring changes in
       | less than 20 words.
        
       | mc4ndr3 wrote:
       | Marketing is easy. Tech is difficult. Politics often feels
       | impossible.
        
         | nobodyandproud wrote:
         | In what way is tech difficult?
        
           | notriddle wrote:
           | How is this even a question?
           | 
           | If you want E2E encryption, you sacrifice good full-text
           | search, because you have to build the index on a computer
           | that has access to the plaintext, which means doing it on an
           | endpoint. It's not as nice as doing it on the server.
           | 
           | If you want to hide metadata, the state of the art is onion
           | routing, and that adds a lot of latency. The only other way
           | that's even been attempted is Enclave computing, which
           | basically just moves the trust from the service operator to
           | the enclave vendor. Enclave computing is better than nothing,
           | but it belongs in a defense-in-depth approach, not a privacy
           | strategy in itself.
           | 
           | And if you want to avoid fingerprinting, you lose responsive
           | design. Those two things are just directly in conflict here.
        
             | nobodyandproud wrote:
             | I'd say it's probably the single most important question.
             | 
             | Engineering is about trade-offs; understanding which trade-
             | offs are acceptable means understanding what it is you're
             | trying to solve; then assessing whether the problem is
             | being looked at from the correct point-of-view (and for
             | that matter whether it's even a technical one).
             | 
             | For example: Journalists within hostile nations are risking
             | their lives every day. Because of this, they're keen on
             | keeping their communication private and away from prying
             | eyes.
             | 
             | So far, the compromises largely involve zero-days and
             | social engineering. The former is really due to the shaky
             | foundation of software today. Every single best practice I
             | see is just awful. Whereas social engineering is an on-
             | going problem and is a policy/procedural/cultural problem,
             | not a technical one. The union of bad software and tolerant
             | social protocols make privacy difficult.
             | 
             | Going back to your objection: For use cases where your life
             | is on the line, is a few seconds or even minutes of latency
             | really a problem? Extend the question, for cases where it's
             | not life-threatening but life-altering. What trade-offs are
             | most users willing to make then?
             | 
             | If you're not willing to make any trade-offs no matter
             | what, then it's difficult or even impossible; and also a
             | sign of a poor engineering process.
        
             | feanaro wrote:
             | > If you want E2E encryption, you sacrifice good full-text
             | search, because you have to build the index on a computer
             | that has access to the plaintext, which means doing it on
             | an endpoint. It's not as nice as doing it on the server.
             | 
             | I'd argue it's better than on the server. Bring me back
             | local computing, please. It's more private, more performant
             | and more energy efficient. The attempt to centralize
             | computing into central server nodes is not reasonable.
        
           | bsedlm wrote:
           | in a collective way
           | 
           | i.e. it's 'easy' for a individual (even a smallish similar
           | group). But in society-scale? difficult.
        
             | prophesi wrote:
             | I would say that's backwards. Sure, politics is slow, but
             | we've seen it succeed exceptionally with aerospace safety
             | (meaning planes built to protocol and maintained to prevent
             | crashes, not TSA security theater) which is an insanely
             | impressive global feat.
             | 
             | Tech has the most impact on user privacy, but there's no
             | financial incentive to uphold privacy and so the slow
             | political stick is required.
             | 
             | Meanwhile users can do their best installing ad blockers,
             | navigate the snake-oil fields of VPN vendors, estrange
             | themselves by quitting social media, set a different search
             | engine on all their devices (which probably still use
             | Google/Microsoft), maybe look into TOR and Whonix, ensure
             | they use email masks and unique usernames for every
             | service, buy Twilio numbers for account sign-ups, get their
             | contacts to use E2E-encrypted messengers and PGP, get a
             | dumbphone that doesn't have GPS enabled at all times, a
             | laptop with camera/mic killswitches. It's not clear which
             | of these steps are excessive or impractical for the layman,
             | aside from ad/tracker blockers.
             | 
             | So the tooling to uphold user privacy is there, but it's
             | nuts to think the solution is for everyone to adopt better
             | privacy-preserving habits rather than slowly killing the
             | business model of the personalized ad industry. A great
             | byproduct of this is that governments will see less
             | surveillance tech vendors to buy from.
        
               | nobodyandproud wrote:
               | > it's nuts to think the solution is for everyone to
               | adopt better privacy-preserving habits rather than slowly
               | killing the business model of the personalized ad
               | industry. A great byproduct of this is that governments
               | will see less surveillance tech vendors to buy from.
               | 
               | Right to the heart. The personalized ad industry has
               | exacerbated the issues of privacy, because it's in their
               | interest to do so.
               | 
               | Having enforceable ground rules in place, in the form of
               | laws, will be difficult because of the money involved;
               | and also the sizeable number of software engineers
               | feeling like they're above the politics.
        
             | nobodyandproud wrote:
             | Is that really about tech?
             | 
             | I remember when both Intel's CPU ID and Microsoft's system
             | updates (because it sent your info to their systems) caused
             | an uproar.
             | 
             | Now we don't blink when talking about telemetry.
        
       | seydor wrote:
       | But privacy regulation practically gave them their monopolies
        
         | jeltz wrote:
         | How? Their monopolies pre-date privacy regulation with actual
         | teeth.
        
       | Cypher wrote:
       | Real question is how do we get through post modernism.... I think
       | part of the healing process is going to be accountability
        
         | guerrilla wrote:
         | What is this comment supposed to mean? Postmodernism is a
         | (nonsensical, imo) philosophical program. Do you mean
         | postmodernity instead? In what sense?
        
           | pessimizer wrote:
           | The children of Glenn Beck use language in a strange way.
        
       | gerash wrote:
       | GDPR and privacy laws so far:
       | 
       |  _intentions_ : Holy! _effects_ : annoyed consumers, legal maze
       | for smaller companies, more job opportunities for lawyers
        
         | guerrilla wrote:
         | You forgot the other effect: privacy and control of our data.
        
           | scarface74 wrote:
           | We have more privacy because of GDPR?
        
       | stakkur wrote:
       | Still amazed daily at how many people eagerly line up to work at
       | Facebook and Google, two companies engaged in mass fuckery with
       | long-term harm to the entire population.
        
         | shadowgovt wrote:
         | Having worked at one of those, I can give you some insight.
         | 
         | ... They think exactly the opposite. Google even has an
         | estimate of how many lives their services save per year on
         | average.
         | 
         | Privacy concerns become extremely secondary when you're
         | stranded in the woods and all rescuers have on your location is
         | the last time your GPS-equipped smartphone pinged. Googlers
         | think of themselves as working on systems like that.
        
         | ocdtrekkie wrote:
         | There's going to be a point where choosing to work at Google in
         | 2020+ is going to be a black mark on your entire career. Nobody
         | has the excuse of claiming they still don't know what's going
         | on. If you work there, you chose to put profit over society.
         | And at least in my hopes and dreams, someday that will cost you
         | a job.
        
           | edgyquant wrote:
           | This is ridiculous. Working at one of the most cutting edge
           | companies solving problems at global scale will not be a
           | black mark on your career.
        
             | ocdtrekkie wrote:
             | Google is neither cutting edge nor solving problems at
             | global scale. They are an adtech company that produces ho-
             | hum messaging apps that abuses human rights as defined by
             | the United Nations as their primary business model.
             | 
             | Choosing to work there today means choosing to hurt society
             | for personal gain, full stop.
        
               | otachack wrote:
               | Ostracizing friends that work in these big companies is
               | no simple task. And I wouldn't exactly put all the blame
               | on them when society and capitalism has built the
               | platform for these companies to succeed.
               | 
               | I would accept friends and acquaintances recognizing
               | their participation, as well as my own as a user of some
               | products, and observe plus work together to figure a way
               | out of this mess (regulations, break up of big tech?)
               | 
               | One also must recognize the philanthropic arms of these
               | companies. They may be some attempt to balance the shit
               | they're doing.
        
               | tester756 wrote:
               | >nor solving problems at global scale.
               | 
               | if they don't, then who does?
        
           | skinnymuch wrote:
           | What amazing companies are most people working at that don't
           | exploit their workers or society? Almost every one puts
           | profit over society to some significant degree. We live in a
           | hyper capitalist society. Being on the side of this hyper
           | capitalist society as the majority of people are, is the
           | problem.
        
         | scarface74 wrote:
         | You're amazed that people willingly work at companies where
         | they can get paid more than 90% of American straight out of
         | college?
        
         | mistrial9 wrote:
         | one of those two did not start that way
        
           | bbarnett wrote:
           | Neither did.
        
             | mistrial9 wrote:
             | you mean when I toured the new Facebook campus in
             | California, with a data science group from Berkeley, and
             | the Facebook guide stood on the stage and showed us on a
             | thirty foot screen, that any one of us can make a map-
             | reduce job in a certain format, Facebook will sell us info
             | on any way to slice the hundreds of social tags and
             | categories they had mined.. that was perfectly OK?
             | 
             | I think the example the guide gave was "bowlers in the
             | upper midwest" .. it was made clear that we could make a
             | job submisison and be sold data on those people. Someone
             | asked if law enforcement was a customer and the answer way
             | "yes we do business with all branches of law enforcement".
        
               | throwaway6093 wrote:
               | They don't sell the data, they sell targeted ads.
        
         | charcircuit wrote:
         | Both of these companies improve the lives of billions of
         | people. You are acting biased if you purposefully ignore that.
        
           | mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote:
           | Do you have some source to corroborate that Google and
           | Facebook have a net positive effect on the lives of billions
           | of people? Making false assumptions is also a way of acting
           | biased.
        
             | charcircuit wrote:
             | No, and I never said net positive, although I do believe
             | that it is one. The negatives are inherit to anything where
             | people can interact with each other, things like using up
             | your time or things like bullying.
        
               | mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote:
               | So, no sources then. Just making assumptions about most
               | of the global human population. Nothing biased about
               | that.
        
               | charcircuit wrote:
               | You don't have a source for your claim either. I'm at
               | least saying that you should recognize how Google
               | provides you plenty of free tools like search, docs,
               | sheets, present, maps, email, etc and entertainment like
               | YouTube. Facebook allows you to connect with your
               | friends, talk to people about your interests, a
               | marketplace, entertainment from photos, videos, streams.
               | Meta also offers Insta for sharing photos or stories and
               | they are investing heavily into XR.
               | 
               | These companies do a lot and I do not think you should
               | trivialize all that they have done by saying that they've
               | done something bad in the past and not even say what they
               | have done. Have you considered the people who want to
               | work their want to actually improve people's lives
               | working on these different projects. Have you considered
               | that large compensation can make people ignore issues.
               | Have you considered that people are just interested in
               | working on the stuff that's available there.
        
               | mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote:
               | I will respond anyway I guess.
               | 
               | All those things you mentioned are great, sure. But to my
               | mind, something can be useful, fun, loved, enjoyed while
               | actively making your life worse. The obvious example
               | being addictive drugs.
               | 
               | My smartphone, for example, has definitely made a lot if
               | things more convenient. It use it all the time, for all
               | sorts of useful things. Marvelously useful piece of
               | technology, the smartphone. Has it improved my life? I'm
               | honestly not sure, but my gut reaction is no, because
               | it's ruined my already limited ability to focus(I have
               | ADHD). It actually makes me far _more_ productive having
               | my phone turned off, despite how useful I seem to think
               | it is.
               | 
               | My point is that something can be useful and do all sorts
               | of things for you, but that can still be true while it's
               | actively harmful to you. And you might not even be
               | conscious of this about yourself, let alone most of the
               | global population.
        
               | mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote:
               | I haven't made any claims. I merely asked if you could
               | back up yours.
        
               | cycomanic wrote:
               | > You don't have a source for your claim either. I'm at
               | least saying that you should recognize how Google
               | provides you plenty of free tools like search, docs,
               | sheets, present, maps, email, etc and entertainment like
               | YouTube.
               | 
               | I would argue none of these are free, because they
               | use/sell your data. If it wasn't so google could not
               | exist.
               | 
               | > Facebook allows you to connect with your friends, talk
               | to people about your interests, a marketplace,
               | entertainment from photos, videos, streams. Meta also
               | offers Insta for sharing photos or stories and they are
               | investing heavily
               | 
               | For facebook and instagram there are at least studies
               | which have shown the harm they are doing to teenagers and
               | children, so there is at least some established facts
               | that show the bad influence (lets not even get into the
               | political bits).
               | 
               | > These companies do a lot and I do not think you should
               | trivialize all that they have done by saying that they've
               | done something bad in the past and not even say what they
               | have done.
               | 
               | That's a slippery slope though, at some point you can
               | justify working for anyone because you don't want to
               | consider their actions of the past to judge them. What
               | about continued action though, e.g. meta burying their
               | own studies on their affect on the mental health of
               | teenage girls just to continue making their profits. At
               | some point someone has to take responsibility to continue
               | working for them (and some people are even actively
               | involved in these decisions).
        
             | scarface74 wrote:
             | Facebook has allowed anyone to spread video capturing
             | police misconduct that the mainstream press has ignored for
             | decades.
             | 
             | Google with Android and ChromeOS has put computing devices
             | in the hands of people who could never afford the
             | alternative and YouTube has allowed anyone to publish
             | video.
             | 
             | I myself find Google's products second rate and I prefer
             | business models where I give the company money and they
             | give me stuff. But I realize that a $1200 iPhone Pro Max is
             | an indulgence that many walking around with a $35
             | unsubsidized phone can't afford.
        
               | mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote:
               | Sure, it's helped people spread some information. It's
               | also helped people massively disseminate misinformation
               | though. What I asked for was some corroboration that
               | there is a net positive.
        
               | skinnymuch wrote:
               | Without Android, would WebOS and other mobile OSes never
               | have come out? Do the people using $35 phones care it's
               | Android vs what ever other OSes they'd have if it never
               | existed?
               | 
               | There were video sites besides YouTube. YouTube cornered
               | the market. That doesn't make them special. All the
               | examples are one brand cornering a market without having
               | done any exceptional innovation that would be incredibly
               | missed without them. Cornering markets is almost never a
               | net positive for people. I should probably say it never
               | is.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Palm had a decade before Android to spread. Android
               | spread because Google made it open source, had the
               | resources to develop and market it.
               | 
               | WebOS was also much slower than Android at the time.
               | 
               | YouTube costs billions a year. Few other companies could
               | operate at that scale.
        
               | pessimizer wrote:
               | WebOS was superior in every way to Android at the time.
               | Since, Android has stolen its UI (and the guy who
               | designed it, I think.)
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | WebOS with its web based operating system was much more
               | sluggish and had a worse ecosystem.
        
               | pessimizer wrote:
               | If these are the best examples, that's not good.
               | 
               | > Facebook has allowed anyone to spread video capturing
               | police misconduct that the mainstream press has ignored
               | for decades.
               | 
               | Facebook didn't _allow_ that, they enabled it, as well as
               | many other places. In fact, if it 's on Facebook, I can't
               | see it. _Smartphones in general_ created the glut of
               | police misconduct videos, because everyone started
               | carrying video cameras 24 /7.
               | 
               | > Google with Android and ChromeOS has put computing
               | devices in the hands of people who could never afford the
               | alternative
               | 
               | I do not believe this is true. I don't think they put
               | computing devices into anyone's hands, and that there are
               | also cheap alternatives. Android and ChromeOS crowd out
               | (real) FOSS alternatives, and iirc ChromeOS _started_ by
               | crowding out Linux on the trendy tiny laptops that were
               | being marketed in the mid /early-oughts.
               | 
               | Having a monopoly on the low-end market isn't charity
               | work.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | So how many of those "other places" would have gotten the
               | viewership?
               | 
               | As far as Android vs the alternatives, Linux was no more
               | ready for the phone than it was ready for "the year of
               | the Linux desktop" to happen.
               | 
               | The Linux desktops that it crowded out, didn't offer the
               | backend server components that make ChromeOS desirable to
               | the target audience.
        
       | fartcannon wrote:
       | Hey everyone! Stop supporting these corporations. Our money and
       | our labor is what allows these corporations to abuse us.
        
       | moffkalast wrote:
       | Companies lobbying to change laws in their favor? Well I never!
        
         | bratwurst3000 wrote:
         | I couldnt believe it either... they wouldnt ...
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | onphonenow wrote:
       | The one thing, if you actually start delivering privacy the FTC /
       | Department of Justice / Democrats are going to be coming for you.
       | 
       | Apple has started using it's market power to cut off some of the
       | bad behavior of others at the knees. The DOJ is going after them
       | HARD - it's kind of amazing.
       | 
       | Totally fraud scam calls = ignored.
       | 
       | Apple doing something with market power to block tracking etc -
       | CRIME (!!)
        
         | r0m4n0 wrote:
         | Apple has a massive hardware moat that will take even secondary
         | players a decade to break into. Every action they take that
         | effects the industry should be taken critically, even if at the
         | surface it appears to be a net positive.
        
           | scarface74 wrote:
           | Yes because the largest Android manufacturer - Samsung -
           | doesn't have any hardware manufacturing expertise.
        
         | omgwtfbyobbq wrote:
         | The DOJ is investigating anti-trust violations, which are
         | arguably unrelated to Apple offering more privacy for
         | consumers.
        
           | onphonenow wrote:
           | Of all the areas of "consumer harm" online my point is for
           | some reason THIS issue with Apple is the key issue they are
           | going after. My guess is this is actually a "business harm"
           | case - ie, scum bags like Match / Facebook with disrupted
           | businesses now doing some kind of alliance to stir the pot
           | and get action (the law is for the rich not the poor).
           | 
           | This is after Apple showed up the DOJ with app store rules
           | that frankly should apply everywhere (ease of cancelation /
           | clear subscription terms) as well as tracking rules, payment
           | method rule and login rules that allow for lots more actual
           | privacy and more.
           | 
           | Of the entire internet, with its endless horrors beyond
           | Apple's control, the DOJ has decided to go after a small
           | green patch that users trust. This is more an indictment of
           | the DOJ than anything. Apple's phone market share is small,
           | but the trust / spending on apple are crazy because it's one
           | of the few places online that doesn't just screw you over.
           | 
           | And hey, I've tried to report online fraud issues for
           | businesses I worked with - it's a total joke. The DOJ gives
           | two craps for even totally obvious scams.
           | 
           | Then all the scam calls
        
             | spideymans wrote:
             | Match Group has mentioned in their earnings how Apple's
             | restrictive polices are harming their earnings by making it
             | easy for consumers to cancel subscriptions.
             | 
             | Facebook has been screaming bloody murder over Apple's
             | regulations making it difficult for them to monetize user
             | fare.
             | 
             | These companies are not your friends, and don't for a
             | second believe that their push for more open regulations
             | has anything to do with user "freedom". These companies are
             | only concerned about apple limiting their freedoms to prey
             | on users.
             | 
             | > Of the entire internet, with its endless horrors beyond
             | Apple's control, the DOJ has decided to go after a small
             | green patch that users trust. This is more an indictment of
             | the DOJ than anything. Apple's phone market share is small,
             | but the trust / spending on apple are crazy because it's
             | one of the few places online that doesn't just screw you
             | over.
             | 
             | The fact that the most valuable consumers willingly lock
             | themselves behind this walled garden, when there were and
             | are plenty of open alternatives is a pretty glaring
             | indictment of the state of the tech industry. Unfortunately
             | predatory and user-hostile companies are the norm in our
             | industry, and consumers have adjusted their spending habits
             | accordingly.
        
               | onphonenow wrote:
               | Yeah.
               | 
               | Match used the love letter scammers to turn non-
               | subscribers into subscribers. What they did was block the
               | scammers from messaging paid accounts, but kept them on
               | platform to generate likes and messages to nonpaid
               | accounts even though they had been flagged as scammers.
               | The free users had to upgrade to see the messages from
               | these scammers. So it was very intentional.
               | 
               | Match did something like 500,000 subscriptions from users
               | within 24 hours of a user receiving a message from a
               | scammer. Even better, if match DID delete the scammers
               | profile, the user would pay to upgrade only to be told
               | profile was unavailable, but no refunds were available.
               | 
               | I loved the "free subscription" match offered - 6 months
               | free! The fine print was that you had to have a fully
               | public profile with a primary photo approved by match,
               | had to upload that photo in seven days, had to message 5
               | users per month and could only get through the claim
               | process in a 7 day window out of the 180 day free trial!
               | So yeah, another ridiculous scam
               | 
               | I could go on and on. The "consumer harm" by forcing
               | match to play by Apple's rules is really "big business
               | harm". And the folks on apple can afford to go elsewhere,
               | these are not poor folks starving. Who has the time for
               | the scams online - I got tired of spending time dealing
               | with them (2 experiences I went to the mat on with plenty
               | of resources). When I deleted an app recently on my
               | iPhone apple REMINDED me to consider deleting a related
               | subscription! That really does not happen in normal DoJ
               | internet land.
               | 
               | The irony of the DoJ claims that Apple is the big bad
               | consumer harm player on the internet (which is PACKED
               | with love letter, phishing, sex-storation and more scams
               | most enabled and many easy preventable if companies
               | wanted to) is kind of comical.
        
             | go_to_moon wrote:
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Games_v._Apple
        
         | yalogin wrote:
         | Can you tell what you mean by DoJ going after apple?
        
           | onphonenow wrote:
           | Apple uses its market power to enforce rules not in effect in
           | the broader internet in their little world. That is
           | everything from clear disclosures of subscription terms, easy
           | cancellation of apps, and lots more.
           | 
           | Other businesses absolutely hate this (ignoring the fact that
           | they themselves poisoned the well outside of apple with
           | endless scummy behaviors). So they are trying to stop apple
           | from being able to do this. Ie, they want to be able to get
           | payment flows and stuff off apple.
           | 
           | Apple's behavior per the DoJ is supposedly causing "consumer
           | harm" - but the reality is DOJ takes a totally blind eye on
           | consumer harm unless that harm also much more directly hits
           | the bottom line of other billion dollar businesses with much
           | worse behavior (ie, online dating folks / gaming folks etc).
           | Then it's all hands on deck.
           | 
           | What's left is basically folks online doing things like scam
           | baiting to even start to hit actual horribly destructive
           | fraud rings online. And they barely make an impact as this is
           | really the territory the govt should be active in.
        
             | KennyBlanken wrote:
             | They don't care about Apple's app store policies.
             | 
             | The DoJ is pissed because Apple wouldn't cripple iMessage
             | and on-device encryption for them. The iCloud 'hole' isn't
             | enough.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Yes and this is the same government that HN users are
               | cheerleading to protect their privacy. I am much more
               | concerned about government overreach than any private
               | company.
        
         | mttddd wrote:
         | privacy and security is a pendulum, it swung hard to security
         | post 9/11 and is swinging hard towards privacy currently. Id be
         | surprised if we ever actually reach a happy middle ground but I
         | am sure at some point we will see things swing back towards
         | security
         | 
         | and to clarify when I say security there is of course the
         | national security apparatus angle but also things like spam,
         | fraud, cyber security, crime etc. All of these will happen and
         | as governments grapple with addressing them unfortunately the
         | easy button tends to negatively impact privacy versus things
         | like providing better funding/training for law enforcement and
         | regulatory bodies
        
         | schleck8 wrote:
        
         | akira2501 wrote:
         | Is there a demonstrated correlation between any of these facts?
         | 
         | That you take reasonable care of your customers privacy does
         | not entitle you to turn around and exercise monopolized control
         | over that market, your competitors, or the consumers.
         | 
         | A straight A student doesn't get to break the law on the
         | weekend just because he gets good grades.
        
           | onphonenow wrote:
           | What's interesting is how you and others have basically given
           | up on any arguments around USER (not business) harm.
           | 
           | When looking at the many many thousands of businesses online
           | and their behavior - you have decided that APPLE (with a much
           | smaller market share than google) has come up with an
           | approach (protecting users on their app store / platform)
           | that is so horrible in its impacts on other businesses that
           | the full weight of the govt should be brought to bear to tell
           | them how to run their business.
           | 
           | This is the SAME govt by the way that absolutely screws folks
           | over with its OWN billing process at the IRS where 90% of
           | calls get an immediate disconnect, mail will sit unopened for
           | 2 years, and millions of docs will be shredded without ever
           | being looked at.
           | 
           | What the govt and you fail to understand is that users may
           | not see the market power apple wields as a negative. In fact,
           | in a world where the user force can basically never stand up
           | to big corp voice (of Facebook or Match.com or whomever)
           | apple is another big player that can. Is this altruistic? Far
           | from it, it's a business play - and one that I'd love to see
           | rewarded vs destroyed.
           | 
           | The reality is the DoJ hates apple for many reasons. They
           | absolutely shut the DoJ down on a phone unlock case. They
           | have pretty clearly created end to end encryption with
           | iMessage. So yes, between facebook, match and biden/doj
           | political stuff - they are going to be targeted. If you think
           | this is a careful result of looking at places of greatest
           | user harm and pursuing them, think again.
        
             | akira2501 wrote:
             | > have basically given up on any arguments around USER (not
             | business) harm.
             | 
             | No, I explicitly mentioned that. Users are obviously harmed
             | by lack of competition in pricing and with product release
             | schedules and support mechanisms that are designed to
             | extract the maximum amount of revenue from them.
             | 
             | It's not as if Apple hasn't been known to engage in
             | precisely this behavior with many of their product lines.
             | 
             | > This is the SAME govt by the way
             | 
             | Again, you're making asserts that may be true, but you're
             | not reliably connecting them to your overall point. Yes,
             | the government itself sometimes gets it wrong, does this
             | enjoin them from ever attempting to get it right?
             | 
             | They can only go after Apple, but only once they've fixed
             | the IRS phone system?
             | 
             | > may not see the market power apple wields as a negative
             | 
             | I'm sure heroin users don't see the market power that
             | heroin dealers hold as a negative, either. This isn't a
             | useful measure and it entirely ignores their monopoly
             | position in the labor and supply markets as well, which
             | have historically been pernicious and poorly publicized but
             | real problems that monopolies present.
             | 
             | > Is this altruistic? Far from it, it's a business play -
             | and one that I'd love to see rewarded vs destroyed.
             | 
             | Just because half your publicly traded business seems to
             | comport to some imagined idealism does not excuse you from
             | following the letter of the law in any other domain. Al
             | Capone used to run soup kitchens with free food, and it
             | worked for a time, but it ultimately didn't save him
             | either.
             | 
             | So, it's great that they get many things right, but it's
             | also great the FTC is on their back ensuring that they get
             | the other things right and aren't abusing their monopoly
             | position as well. I fail to see how we are deprived as
             | citizens by any part of this process.
             | 
             | > If you think this is a careful result of looking at
             | places of greatest user harm and pursuing them, think
             | again.
             | 
             | I don't think you've been paying attention to the the FTC,
             | staff changes, or the politics surrounding it for the past
             | 2 years, knowledge of which really undercuts the government
             | conspiracy narrative you're attempting to peddle here.
        
       | Overtonwindow wrote:
       | Kind of the playbook for every company, do something before the
       | government does it for you.
        
       | BrianOnHN wrote:
       | Does anyone know why I can't find the English version of this[1]
       | Wikipedia page? Seems relevant.
       | 
       | [1] https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bummer
        
         | treve wrote:
         | It doesn't exist in English Wikipedia. If you find this weird,
         | my guess is this acronym must have gotten more (mainstream?)
         | attention in Germany (despite being in English).
         | 
         | I've never heard of it and I don't think it's common where I am
         | (Canada). Sometimes people coin terms and they get picked up in
         | some places, but not others.
         | 
         | When I lived in Germany and the Netherlands, it was often
         | surprising to me which foreign terms/concepts/artists get
         | elevated to mainstream relevance. There's a lot of imported
         | culture from English speaking countries, but it's through a
         | specific filter.
         | 
         | Here's an English source from the article you shared though:
         | https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/27/jaron-lan...
        
         | mistrial9 wrote:
         | https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/27/jaron-lan...
        
         | pvg wrote:
         | Because it mostly looks like book promo rather than something
         | that needs a separate Wikipedia page. It's not a widely used
         | term and should likely be tossed from German wikipedia as well.
         | It would make sense in a page about the book or the author.
        
       | Bud wrote:
       | Yet another article where Apple gets recklessly tossed in and
       | combined with the real bad actors in this field, even though the
       | article then fails to cite even a single breach or privacy issue
       | or anti-privacy stance taken by Apple. Worse, the article
       | contains this complete lie:
       | 
       | "All of the companies cited by The Markup - Amazon, Apple,
       | Google, Meta, and Microsoft - have dominant or emerging online ad
       | businesses, which rely heavily on data collection."
       | 
       | Nope. Apple does not have an "dominant or emerging online ad
       | business". Apple has no ad business at all, let alone one that
       | "relies heavily on data collection".
       | 
       | Is it too much to ask to have some professional editors vetting
       | these articles before publishing?
        
         | passivate wrote:
         | Also, FWIW Apple is no longer part of this lobbying group. And
         | I'm no fan of Apple - they're a greedy anti-repair company.
         | 
         | https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/04/07/apple-leaves-priv...
         | 
         | But even otherwise, the links between the companies and
         | legislation are weak to begin with (IMO). Its a lot of lazy
         | connect-the-dots type reasoning that turns "may be" "could be"
         | "seems like" into "must be" and "is".
        
         | Terretta wrote:
         | > _Apple has no ad business at all..._
         | 
         | https://searchads.apple.com/
         | 
         | Understanding the ways this is different from, say, Google Ads,
         | AdRoll, or TowerData, is nuance beyond most journalists.
         | 
         | Not that it's hard to research. Consider:
         | 
         |  _Apple Search Ads doesn't buy or share users' personal
         | information with other companies. We don't track people by
         | linking user or device data collected from Apple apps with user
         | or device data collected from third parties for advertising
         | targeting or measurement. And we don't share user or device
         | data with data brokers._ -- https://searchads.apple.com/privacy
         | 
         | Pro-tip to journos: the story is in what comes immediately
         | after _"which rely heavily on data collection"_.
         | 
         | Data is collected. Then where does it go?
        
           | cycomanic wrote:
           | So that text doesn't say they are not using the data they
           | collected for advertising targeting or measurement. They
           | simply say they don't link the data with data collected from
           | third parties for advertising. They are the only ad provider
           | on iOS are they not? So the argument is, because they have a
           | monopoly on their platform and don't share with anyone else
           | they are vastly different? Or am I misunderstanding
           | something?
        
             | Terretta wrote:
             | I'm not sure if you're misunderstanding something.
             | Definitely seem to be missing something. I didn't ask
             | what's being done with the data. I asked where it goes.
             | 
             | Do you think there's equivalence between selling user data
             | to a marketplace of 4,700 third parties, and an internal
             | machine-learning-sized A/B test?
             | 
             | https://themarkup.org/ask-the-markup/2021/09/02/what-does-
             | it...
             | 
             | Or put another way:
             | 
             | > _So the argument is, because they ... don 't share with
             | anyone else they are vastly different?_
             | 
             | Yes.
        
       | kache_ wrote:
       | Data regulation laws: introducing engineering constraints that
       | only the big 5 have the engineering army to design & deal with :)
        
         | cycomanic wrote:
         | This is backward. You don't need an engineering army to _not_
         | collect private data. You do need an engineering army to
         | collect private data and use it.
        
           | scarface74 wrote:
           | No you just need an army of lawyers. Just like you need them
           | to interpret the 11 chapter 99 section GDPR.
        
       | marban wrote:
       | Original Markup report:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31528823
        
       | onetokeoverthe wrote:
        
       | scarface74 wrote:
       | I agree with BigTech completely. Dealing with different laws in
       | each state would be a nightmare for any company.
       | 
       | If there were one federal set of guidelines it would be better.
       | 
       | But then again, the GDPR made a shit show of the web and made it
       | less usable with cookie banners on every page.
        
         | g_p wrote:
         | GDPR doesn't mandate cookie banners - that was actual other
         | separate legislation (ePrivacy Directive). It provided a
         | renewed focus and made more companies sit up and take note.
         | 
         | Sites aren't required to have banners - the intention of the
         | legislation was to encourage and nudge companies towards more
         | straightforward business models, based around what users
         | reasonably expect etc. You only need banners and consent where
         | cookies are used for purposes the user didn't request (adding
         | an item to a shopping basket doesn't require consent, but
         | profiling a user and sharing that with third parties for
         | retargeting isn't something reasonably expected, so it would
         | require consent and disclosures of the companies involved).
        
           | scarface74 wrote:
           | The road to hell is paved with good intentions. How did that
           | work out for the end user?
        
             | tjoff wrote:
             | Pretty great actually. The good it has done for end users
             | are immeasurable at the same time as the cost for shady
             | companies is increasing.
             | 
             | Going slow though, but that is hardly surprising (and the
             | opposite would be alarming)
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | _How_ has it helped users? Two of the largest tech
               | companies are adTech, tracking ads are still everywhere.
               | All we got are cookie banners that are worse than the
               | ads. Ads are much easier to block.
        
               | mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote:
               | It helped me by allowing me to demand that facebook and
               | google delete the shadow browsing history they kept on
               | me, and disallowing them from continuing to collect data.
        
               | tjoff wrote:
               | You imagined google going bankrupt as a result of GDPR?
               | 
               | It has given users tons of options regarding exporting
               | and deleting data. Changed the defaults and limits use of
               | personal data. These are all huge and goes way beyond
               | internet.
               | 
               | Users now have an ability to more easily see how their
               | data is being abused and which companies are too greedy
               | to not ruin their own websites.
               | 
               | For the first time in a very long time there is hope.
               | 
               | Then again, we have people who still believe GDPR is
               | about banners, we have long ways to go but it is the
               | first step in the right direction in forever and it is a
               | huge step at that, we have barely started reacting to it.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | How many users are actually saying "we don't want to use
               | Google after we see all of the disclosures"? This "first
               | step" has gone on for 8 years.
        
               | tjoff wrote:
               | A lot. And google is being fined for it as well.
               | Awareness is key and that takes time to gain attraction.
               | 
               | But no, I don't have any numbers for it. You'd might
               | consider having an open mind though. I'm for one is done
               | with this "discussion".
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | And I'm sure you have numbers showing Google's decline in
               | usage since the GDPR or showing a shift from ad supported
               | websites.
               | 
               | I'm very willing to have an open mind when given facts
               | and statistics with citations.
        
               | ushakov wrote:
               | in Germany, Ecosia is a pretty popular choice
               | 
               | it's built-in on Safari actually
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Ecosia's market share is a little over 1% in Germany.
               | 
               | https://www.statista.com/statistics/1150709/ecosia-
               | search-en...
               | 
               | In contrast, the rest of us got a worse user experience.
        
         | ushakov wrote:
         | shit show of the web are internet companies that show ads and
         | track users across the web
        
           | scarface74 wrote:
           | Did the legislation make the consumer experience better or
           | worse? Did it accomplish its goals?
        
             | heretogetout wrote:
             | Probably better. A lot of sites chose to become worse,
             | although they were already secretly/silently terrible.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Can you name any popular sites that became better? Did it
               | help the user experience for any popular sites or did it
               | make it worse?
        
               | heretogetout wrote:
               | I don't know of specific sites that became better. Your
               | premise is flawed, though, as the sites only became
               | visibly worse because the site owners chose to do that.
               | And now more people know how bad the web has become.
        
             | ushakov wrote:
             | arguably better
             | 
             | the users are now more aware of unethical business models
             | and have more control over which third-parties can access
             | data
        
               | IMTDb wrote:
               | Considerably worse
               | 
               | Consumer end up clicking accept all on every single
               | webpage, after the equivalent of an attention grabbing
               | popup, something we were happy to see disappear when
               | organisations ( and _not governments_ ) decided to pretty
               | much ban them from browser.
               | 
               | What _has_ improve my privacy:                  -
               | Disabling third party cookies via a browser setting (than
               | you Mozilla and Apple). I can understand why websites
               | that I visit might put cookies on my computer. I am even
               | Ok with them tracking me when I visit their websites, but
               | I do not feel why the need to track me outside of their
               | websites        - Deprecating some api used for
               | fingerprinting (thank you Mozilla and Apple). These API
               | were not designed for those reasons, but where abused.
               | What works here is technical expertise to maintain their
               | general usefulness, while preventing the abuse. The
               | various laws had close to 0 impact.        - Apple
               | private relay (thank you Apple), preventing even more
               | tracking, again through *technical* means.
               | 
               | Things that do not help :                  - Clicking a
               | button on every single website I visit. I would love to
               | be able to put a setting in my browser to tell what I
               | feel is OK with regard to cookies, and have my browser
               | handle those since cookies are managed by my browser
               | anyway. But the law won't allow me to do that since
               | consent must be "specific", meaning that I need to
               | express my consent for every single domain I visit. Note
               | that this makes private browsing almost unusable since I
               | have to repeat "consent" again fr websites that I already
               | visit quite often. This has *reduced* my global privacy.
               | - Asking a website about my data. I did once for the lolz
               | and never did it again. In my company, we get an average
               | of one query every 3 month for thousands of daily users.
               | But it justified some lawyer salary while we did a
               | "project" out of it. So I guess it payed some suits guy a
               | new BMW.
               | 
               | As a citizen on the web, GDPR et al. have made my life
               | worse, while Mozilla and Apple made mine better. As a
               | professional, these law have directed a small part of my
               | revenue to lawyers, but haven't changed a thing about
               | what we were doing and how we were conduction our
               | business.
               | 
               | There are better use of taxpayer money.
        
               | stiray wrote:
               | Yes but you must understand that most of users are
               | incapable to do what you did.
               | 
               | GDPR wasn't written for technical users but for all
               | citizens of EU. By having banner they have at least
               | possibility to reject tracking.
               | 
               | Also there was a DNT header initiative. Simple and
               | elegant, serer would get the header from browser and
               | would stop tracking you. You wouldnt even see it. Did it
               | work?
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | GDPR wasn't written _by_ technical users. Users are
               | perfectly capable of installing ad blockers on their
               | computers and Safari for iOS.
               | 
               | There are no good methods to block cookie banners.
        
               | mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote:
               | There's also no good way to block data collection
               | inherent in the service you are using. You can't use
               | ublock to stop Google from saving everything you search
               | for, or your location data. GDPR does allow you to stop
               | that.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Did the cookie banner or the GDPR prevent that?
               | 
               | It seems to me that Apple - a private company - had a lot
               | more of a measurable effect than the government. Major
               | companies like Facebook have explicitly said that Apple's
               | new policy had a material effect on their earnings.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | IMTDb wrote:
               | > Yes but you must understand that most of users are
               | incapable to do what you did.
               | 
               | Third party browser disabling is now enabled by default
               | in firefox and safari, so no operation needed. API used
               | for fingerprinting alternations require no operation on
               | my side. The only thing that require activation is
               | private relay, which needs to be done once and is _much
               | simpler_ than all the legislation around GDPR, cookies
               | etc.
               | 
               | > Also there was a DNT header initiative. Did it work?
               | 
               | It didn't because honouring it was a server side choice.
               | Just like honouring the EU cookie law is a server side
               | choice and doesn't really work either. If you don't want
               | a cookie to be used to track you: don't send it.
        
         | mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote:
         | GDPR didn't make the shit show. Tech companies that rely on
         | breaking the GDPR caused the shit show by choosing to simply
         | ask for consent to violate it instead of changing their
         | practices.
        
           | scarface74 wrote:
           | So in other words the government law was ineffective at
           | accomplishing its goals -- all 11 chapters and 99 sections?
           | 
           | https://gdpr-info.eu/
        
         | GekkePrutser wrote:
         | They don't have to have banners, they only have to have them if
         | they do user-hostile tracking.
         | 
         | Unfortunately most sites have scummy business models and this
         | just exposes them.
         | 
         | It opened a market for untargeted ads again (based on the
         | general interest of site visitors) which would never have
         | happened if it was left to the market.
         | 
         | Google is actively working against these untargeted ads because
         | targeting is their #1 market advantage. Nobody has a bigger
         | tracking network than them.
         | 
         | But especially in Europe other players are taking off with them
         | now.
        
           | gerash wrote:
           | None-sense! If you have to blame 99% of the website
           | (clothing, media, restaurants, ...) as being malicious in
           | order to defend a piece of legislation then you're obviously
           | wrong.
           | 
           | I don't care about the intentions of the law. I care about
           | the effects. No one is trying to update/fix the law within a
           | feedback loop. It's a one time process.
        
             | ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote:
             | You mean all websites that incorporate Google and Facebook
             | trackers allowing those companies to know everything we
             | buy, every piece of text we read, who we talk to, etc ...
             | 
             | I don't find it obviously wrong to have a problem with
             | this.
        
           | scarface74 wrote:
           | So how many users have said "okay I'm not going to use this
           | website because I know how they use my data based on the
           | cookie banner?"
           | 
           | How many of these companies in Europe have even a fifth of
           | Google's ad revenue?
        
         | ocdtrekkie wrote:
         | So the point of cookie banners is malicious compliance.
         | Annoying banners get people opposed to EU privacy laws, which
         | is the true goal of the banners. When Facebook blocked news in
         | Australia over a legal dispute, they "accidentally" blocked all
         | sorts of other content. But it wasn't a mistake, it was
         | intended to sabotage the privacy regulations' popularity, so
         | people like you would call for it's removal. Craigslist didn't
         | actually need to close personals when FOSTA was passed, but by
         | doing so, they created a plausible claim for harm caused by a
         | law that regulated them.
         | 
         | When companies overreact to legislation in ways that negatively
         | impact society, stop blaming the law, because that's entirely
         | what the tech companies are trying to do. They're trying to
         | turn you against the very lawmakers who are protecting you from
         | them.
        
           | scarface74 wrote:
           | So you mean the government passed a law without thinking
           | through the unintended consequences...shocking!
           | 
           | And you're claiming that every website that chose to use
           | cookie banners was doing so for political reasons? Do you
           | think that is the simplest explanation - and not that a bunch
           | of lawmakers were incompetent?
        
             | ocdtrekkie wrote:
             | It's not that I think laws were passed incompetently, but
             | that they were watered down to get them passed. We should
             | be hauling executives of Google and Facebook to jail, but
             | we're still at the "make everyone notify users they're
             | being abused" level.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Either way you cut, the legislation was ineffective and
               | are you also going to haul in every mom and pop WordPress
               | owner? Every blog site?
               | 
               | You really want the government policing web content?
        
         | stiray wrote:
         | Sorry but you are wrong. GDPR doesnt mandate any cookie
         | banners.
         | 
         | You might be interested in this:
         | 
         | https://noyb.eu/en/more-cookie-banners-go-second-wave-compla...
         | 
         | Actually NOYB has also provided website owners how to make
         | cookie banners GDPR compliant:
         | 
         | https://wecomply.noyb.eu/static/app/pdf/OneTrustGuide.0afba7...
        
           | scarface74 wrote:
           | So now _270_ websites just have more compliant irritating
           | banners...
        
             | stiray wrote:
             | Well, they don't need to. They just need to turn off the
             | tracking of users and they don't need any banners.
             | 
             | The problem is not in GDPR. The problem is in the website
             | owners. They are the one who are trolling you with banners.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | They weren't trolling me with the banners before the law.
               | Now they are still tracking users and the user experience
               | is worse.
        
               | skinnymuch wrote:
               | Weird to blame regulation for how private entities act.
               | Entities whose focus and goal are maximizing profits. I
               | hope I don't need to give citations for how the basics of
               | our societies economic system works. Though I'm sure we
               | can find "experts" at hundreds of think tanks simping for
               | big business disagreeing.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Legislation _forced_ private entities to act that way.
               | They weren't forced to make any substantial changes.
        
       | indymike wrote:
       | Privacy regulations can make it very difficult for competitors to
       | gain traction for incumbents, so there is active lobbying to get
       | regulatory barriers to competition in play. At the same time, far
       | too much money is being made to allow laws and regulations to
       | kill revenues... so it gets complicated. The easy way is to just
       | say you are all for privacy, and then oppose it at every turn.
       | 
       | Another issue is this: breaking some of these privacy laws both
       | in force and proposed, is really quite easy to do - as easy as a
       | misconfigured logger or a developer including the wrong field in
       | a query.
        
         | thfuran wrote:
         | Plenty of existing laws take intent into consideration so its
         | not unreasonable to suppose that a log that happens to
         | accidentally contain some information that it shouldn't before
         | being destroyed and the bug patched would be quite legally
         | distinct from a log containing the same information but has a
         | business unit processing and profiting from it.
        
           | sneak wrote:
           | ...and the national military surveillance operationalizing
           | it.
           | 
           | This isn't just about revenue. People are assassinated by the
           | US government without trial based on metadata.
        
           | shadowgovt wrote:
           | How much did Google get smacked for for collecting
           | unencrypted packet data while they were building out their
           | SSID-based localization improvements?
        
           | scarface74 wrote:
           | So what are the chances that a judge cares about "intent" on
           | site that doesn't conform to their belief system?
        
             | thfuran wrote:
             | You're asking what the odds are that a judge will refrain
             | from flagrant malfeasance. I'd imagine it's pretty high,
             | though surely not 100%.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | You trust the legal system far more than I do.
        
               | thfuran wrote:
               | So, what, we shouldn't attempt to have privacy
               | protections because some corrupt judge might fine a
               | company that shouldn't have been fined?
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | We shouldn't give the government more power for them to
               | abuse...period.
        
               | thfuran wrote:
               | Should we close down all air traffic control to make sure
               | no air traffic controller ever screws up?
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Can air traffic controllers take away my freedom and my
               | rights?
        
               | thfuran wrote:
               | I don't understand. You want rights but don't want the
               | government to have any power to enforce them?
        
               | paulryanrogers wrote:
               | Better defacto, unelected governments in the form of huge
               | companies with armies of lobbyists and forced arbitration
               | agreements.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Because of how both the electoral college works and
               | gerrymandering, the elected officials don't represent the
               | majority.
               | 
               | Besides, private companies don't have the force of law to
               | force people to do anything.
               | 
               | Giving the government more power over your freedom is
               | never the answer.
        
               | paulryanrogers wrote:
               | > Besides, private companies don't have the force of law
               | to force people to do anything.
               | 
               | As more and more consolidation happens I'm not so sure
               | this is still true. If all grocery stores become zero-
               | human Amazon markets and their AI decides your long
               | forgotten, hobby EC2 instance is past due then can you
               | buy food?
               | 
               | Rent an apartment?
               | 
               | Fly on a plane?
               | 
               | Elections in the US need reformed, no doubt. And
               | governments have a monopoly on legal violence. The answer
               | isn't to keep handing the keys to the government over to
               | whomever/whatever has the most money.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Only 5% of all IT spend is on any cloud provider:
               | 
               | https://accelerationeconomy.com/cloud/amazon-shocker-ceo-
               | jas...
               | 
               | The grocery store market is definitely not a monopoly
               | 
               | https://www.statista.com/statistics/818602/online-and-
               | offlin...
               | 
               | And Whole Foods makes up less than 2%
               | 
               | There is definitely not a "tech monopoly" on renting an
               | apartment. On the other hand, the government can and does
               | take away peoples property through both imminent domain
               | and civil forfeiture.
               | 
               | The government already controls who can fly and who can't
               | via "no fly lists"
               | 
               | https://www.aclu.org/issues/national-security/grounded-
               | life-...
               | 
               | So no, I have no desire to give government _more_ power.
        
           | xyzzyz wrote:
           | It is not unreasonable, I agree. However, the privacy laws
           | passed by government are mostly intended to play performative
           | and punitive role, and actual interest of the people in
           | balancing their privacy and usability concerns are tertiary
           | at best. The politicians pass those laws to look good on one
           | side, and to attack the companies on the other. User concerns
           | are mostly ignored.
        
             | thfuran wrote:
             | >However, the privacy laws passed by government are mostly
             | intended to play performative and punitive role
             | 
             | Yeah, that seems to pretty well describe most all
             | legislature these days.
        
         | falcolas wrote:
         | Reality is, many such consumer protection laws include revenue
         | minimums to avoid this very problem. See, as an example, the
         | proposed law in CA allowing parents to sue social media
         | companies.
        
           | endisneigh wrote:
           | Why should your privacy depend on the revenue of the company?
        
             | falcolas wrote:
             | It mitigates the fear about its primary use being
             | regulatory capture. Which is also quite important.
        
             | izacus wrote:
             | Obviously when the little car mechanic at the end of the
             | street sells your private information to data aggregators
             | for ad spam, it's all fine.
             | 
             | /s
        
             | t-3 wrote:
             | How are the loopholes gonna be exploited if there aren't
             | any loopholes? C'mon, get with the program.
        
             | pkos98 wrote:
             | Because the insights from the data do depend on the scale
             | of the dataset. Thats why the number of users is taken into
             | account in data privacy laws such as GDPR (No. of users
             | correlates with revenue).
        
             | [deleted]
        
         | cycomanic wrote:
         | >Another issue is this: breaking some of these privacy laws
         | both in force and proposed, is really quite easy to do - as
         | easy as a misconfigured logger or a developer including the
         | wrong field in a query.
         | 
         | So if I drive accidentally over the speed limit I should not
         | get a ticket? That's a weird argument isn't it? Moreover, we
         | are talking about companies with billions of revenue, they can
         | afford to pay people to make sure things work. If you are
         | worried about large incumbents using the laws as barriers (a
         | weird argument, should we not protect people first, not
         | companies?), just lobby for fines to be a fraction of revenue.
         | 
         | Moreover, the behavior of the big companies in Europe shows
         | that they have and continue to intentionally skirt and break
         | the rules as much as possible until they get hit with fines. I
         | really have very little empathy with Google, Meta et al.
        
           | ouid wrote:
           | You should not get a ticket for accidentally driving over the
           | speed limit (unless you are driving over every plausible
           | speed limit), but a corporation should. This is not an
           | arbitrary distinction, and equivocating as you have hurts
           | your argument.
        
         | DANK_YACHT wrote:
         | > Privacy regulations can make it very difficult for
         | competitors to gain traction for incumbents
         | 
         | This is an oft repeated argument that makes no sense. The point
         | of privacy legislation is not to increase competition. The
         | point is to increase privacy. The government has other
         | legislative tools to increase competition should it wish to do
         | so.
        
           | ghayes wrote:
           | Yes, but the side-effects of laws are the direct effects of
           | laws and cannot be simply dismissed. This is the primary
           | concern for any law, that it may impose other costs on
           | society than just its intended consequences.
        
           | spicybright wrote:
           | It's like saying "Regulations against dumping garbage into
           | oceans can make it very competitors to gain traction for
           | incumbents."
        
           | hhw wrote:
           | I think the point he was trying to make is that big tech can
           | use privacy regulations to keep out new competitors, rather
           | than encourage them, as compliance with privacy regulations
           | can create a higher barrier to entry
        
             | yulaow wrote:
             | How? You just need to not save user data outside of that
             | strictly required for providing your service and you easily
             | comply even with the most stringent GDPR directives. To be
             | honest caring about privacy lowers a lot your barrier to
             | entry, unless you whole business is based around tracking
             | ads or reselling of data to shady third parties.
        
               | nojs wrote:
               | Here's an example for you: https://www.streetlend.com/
               | 
               | > With sadness, StreetLend was shut down in April 2018,
               | after five years of operation.
               | 
               | > Unfortunately the European Union's new GDPR (General
               | Data Protection Regulation), introduced on 25th May 2018,
               | creates uncertainty and risk that are impossible to
               | justify for small non-profit websites.
        
               | shadowgovt wrote:
               | Or collecting samples of user-provided data to build
               | machine learning systems, which is how Google
               | bootstrapped its search, spam filter, and voice
               | recognition technologies.
        
           | CharlesW wrote:
           | > _This is an oft repeated argument that makes no sense._
           | 
           | It's so nonsensical that occasionally I wonder if this is an
           | argument made primarily by the incumbents themselves in order
           | to maintain the status quo.
        
           | pessimizer wrote:
           | > The point of privacy legislation is not to increase
           | competition. The point is to increase privacy.
           | 
           | There is no point without a person to have one. This is your
           | point. It's absolutely impossible to generalize it to
           | everyone who works to pass "privacy" legislation, and simply
           | incorrect. Sometimes you try to pass privacy legislation to
           | _reduce privacy._ Sometimes you try to pass privacy
           | legislation because you have a product that would sell more
           | if it passed. And yes, sometimes you try to pass privacy
           | legislation because it adds so much red tape that you need a
           | full time employee, a team, or a department to comply with
           | it, and you know potential challengers can 't afford that
           | yet.
        
         | 8note wrote:
         | There's a nit in there:
         | 
         | Privacy regulations can make it very difficult to for
         | competitors to start up with abusing information.
        
         | Spooky23 wrote:
         | That's the social media equivalent of "guns don't kill people,
         | people do".
         | 
         | Nobody is unseating social incumbents. The industry is out of
         | the growth phase and needs a firmer hand.
        
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