Facebook Locking Out GDPR Users Until They Consent
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This isn't a case where there is non-GDPR functionality that can be severed and provided in the absence of GDPR consent.
This kind of thing is exactly what I have been saying would happen with GDPR. Large companies will say “take all of it or leave it” - and for the most part they’ll get away with it. They have the power to do this, and very little will change for them. The difference is that they are now able to run without fear of startup competitors ever closing in on them, because no startup can get away with this same thing.
The natural effect of GDPR will be to consolidate power and data in the hands of the few companies that can both afford to comply and wield enough power in users’ lives to strong-arm them into giving consent to anything the company wants to do.
High illegal immigration from Mexico is, given geography and existing population demographics, a natural effect of the US’s per-country caps on family-based immigration categories.
From what I understand GDPR it allows data processing if this is needed to do the business, as it is in case of Facebook, so if someone refuses to agree for that, such person cannot use FB.
For example your gym might have video surveillance, which is fine, but it has to have a sign and they can't use the footage for anything else than for security reasons without asking you first and they have to delete it after a certain amount of time. They don't have to video tape you and then sell the footage to the health store next door in order to advertise to you in order to let you use the gym.
The normal operation of Facebook processes a lot of your information between login attempts, and not in direct response to yoour action; if they haven't gotten consent that satisfies the GDPR for that before May 25, they need to stop processing your information, which means they need to essentially completely disable and isolate your account, not just from you logging in, but from all visibility and interaction initiated by other parties.
While, in the abstract, a service they processes your information only in direct and immediate response to your UI interactions could adopt a granular permission model and seek consent for just what was necessary to handle each control interaction when you interacted with the relevant control (crappy UX, but it's possible), that's not the way Facebook works, nor is it something it seems Facebook could, with reasonable effort, be reengineered into. I'm not even sure pausing aall processing of your data until consent is received without deleting your account is something Facebook could reasonably be reengineered to do.
“Consent or delete your account” doesn't seem all that far from the choices Facebook practically has under the GDPR.
Be right back, making popcorn.
So it's standard mo to show users shit, get the clicks, then use the numbers to justify how much people love the platform. The rest of the herd then stands back and says hmmm maybe this is what people "really" want.
No.
There may not be 'balls' here, but this is definitely the most hilariously bad way for Facebook to handle this.
What this is REALLY saying is this:
A) We here at Facebook aren't really about connecting people. We are about marketing, and ad delivery in order to generate revenue.
B) The goal of keeping you connected and communicating with your social graph is so unimportant to us, that we are either technically incapable, or otherwise unwilling to provide service to customer bases that we cannot monetize.
C) We will hold onto, and continue selling any data we have already collected about you, that we really never got informed consent from you on, because we told you it was about us connecting you, and you didn't read the fine print.
So either accept, or here is a copy of your data. Excuse us while we sell what we already have. Ciao!
This will NOT earn Facebook any "Good Faith" points in the court of public opinion, and is adding further fuel to the international fire of "how far will contract law be allowed to usurp fundamental rights?"
Popcorn time indeed!
"People just submitted it. I don't know why. They 'trust me'. Dumb f__ks." -Mark Zuckerberg
So just because you agree doesn't mean it's binding, especially if it's unlawful. E.g. in Germany, contracts presented after purchase are void (EULAs), and you can't sign away your "Urheberrecht", or author's rights - which has interesting implications for copyright licenses. However, the regulators will take a very dim view on such behaviour. I don't know what they're trying to accomplish.
I think it's debatable. Yes, if they were denying service unrelated to the consent, that would not be freely given, but everything Facebook does with your account is covered by GDPR, and there doesn't seem to be a clear and explicit rule on the required degree of granularity of consent when multiple functions all require consent.
I actually think this approach might be the safest thing FB can do regarding GDPR other than unilaterally and without recourse dumping every account of a person protected by the GDPR, perhaps while developing a completely new system with a different fundamental design and business model for the EU.
What's most interesting to me, is that whilst many say this is flat out illegal under the GDPR. If after this appearance, i.e some form of lobbying to the EU. Whether it sets a new precedent?
If bigger companies can get away with this sort of action due to lobbying. Then smaller companies/startups will surely lose out as they are unable to match lobbying efforts and will result in not being able to be as competitive.
I'm very interested to see how things progress in the coming weeks. Whether there is an amendment (due to a backdown by Facebook) or this becomes the norm and other larger companies follow.
[0]: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/22/european-...
“Your Options:
If you do not agree, you cannot continue using Facebook. You can delete your account and you have the option of downloading your information“
It's amazing (though not really) that all these companies were quite sure they gave users informed and accurate choices, until real penalties are attached if that isn't quite true...
https://s21.q4cdn.com/399680738/files/doc_financials/2018/Q1... (slide 5)
WhatsApp is a dead-end at this point anyway, as they plan on removing end-to-end encryption. That's why both of WhatsApp's founders and many other employees have started leaving the company.
To some extent the announcement of him leaving, following changes to terms of service last year, make if for a very good canary in the coal mine kind of warning, that even if bound by confidentiality or other agreements preventing disclosure, he's leaving $4B behind for "some reason". I'm sure if it was to launch a new venture that'd be fine to disclose...
I haven't seen this on WhatsApp.