America: Let's have a party. I'll bring the software!
China: I'll bring the hardware!
EU: I'll bring the regulation! - @paulg
China: I'll bring the hardware!
EU: I'll bring the regulation! - @paulg
What I don't like is simplistic thinking, where regulation is bad by definition - like he does in his tweet. It can be bad, but it can also be really good if done cleverly.
The losses the companies he has invested in sustain duento regulation are not necessarily "absolute losses" in the sense that it is wasted money. The are "societal costs" that need to be payed in order to make sure the companies adhere to a certain level of civility.
The way I read it is more like if you substituted the EU for say, Saudi Arabia. The Saudis btw bring oil (i.e. energy) to the party - but if they brought nothing but Saudi regulations would you still invite them? What "societal costs" would you be willing to pay to adhere to a certain level of House of Saud defined civility?
There's a danger in the myopia of fake universalism, of believing everyone wants your culture and civilization's definition of civility enforced on them - and perhaps they will accommodate you if you're bringing a lot else to the party, but if that's all you're bringing you might simply find yourself uninvited from a lot of parties.
The EU is pretty good at regulation. and its easier to get the best from US software and Chinese hardware with sensible regulations in place.
So yes, even though the EU is ridiculed in this joke it actually makes important contributions. Perhaps the only issue is that well-designed regulation is usually so subtle that people don't even recognize the benefits, or take it for granted...
I'm pretty sure Google etc. still know everything there is to know about me.
GDPR itself only mentions cookies once and only observes that they can be used to profile people. It contains no instructions on what to do about that.
The majority of GDPR is a bunch of mostly sensible privacy principles, such as if you manage personal data, you have to look after it well, and not use it for purposes it wasn't collected for.
Only for those wanting to track users. Don’t track users, it’s all good, ignore GDPR all you like.
> and force annoying pop ups on everyone.
Pop ups reminding you that all those web sites:
1. Want to track users more than they wanted to avoid annoying users
2. Want to blame the annoying pop-ups on the GDPR instead of, you know, the tracking.
Others being that encryption is enforced, you have a clearer picture what of your data companies can process etc.