No one likes this kind of pedantry. Everyone knows they mean that it is infeasible, not impossible. If you actually think it's feasible, now that's an interesting discussion.
I don't think it's pedantry - to my knowledge, the discussion about training data usage without permission (opt-in vs opt-out) is not yet done yet. Or is it?
Feigning ignorance is another common form of pedantry.
What are you talking about?
I don’t think it’s pedantic. It’s a solution that respects the privacy of users and complies with gdpr. If it’s an expensive solution maybe they should eat that cost as part of the risk of building the system in the first place
"Aw geez, but it's hard!" is not a good excuse as to why you can't stop when you're doing something wrong. If it's so difficult to delete someone's personal data, maybe don't collect it in the first place. Seems reasonable enough.
If you do something illegal you don't get to justify it by saying the alternative is infeasible. You either figure out a way, or stop doing the thing altogether.
That sounds like a "cleaning up that oil spill is way too expensive for our company". If complying with the law or dealing with the consequences of your actions isn't feasible, think of a solution beforehand or change your plans.
I'm purely calling out a style of discourse. I completely agree with you.
They might honestly have to if the model was trained on data they are not legally entitled to. But that’s a risk they knew going in.