Facebook CEO Says Not Planning To Extend European Privacy Law Globally (reuters.com) 84
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday that the social network had no immediate plans to apply a strict new European Union law on data privacy in its entirety to the rest of the world. The news comes as Facebook reels from a scandal over its handling of personal information of millions of its users. Reuters reports: Zuckerberg told Reuters in a phone interview that Facebook already complies with many parts of the law ahead of its implementation in May. He said the company wanted to extend privacy guarantees worldwide in spirit, but would make exceptions, which he declined to describe. His comments signals that U.S. Facebook users, many of them still angry over the company's handling of personal information, may soon find themselves in a worse position than Europeans. The European law, called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is the biggest overhaul of online privacy since the birth of the internet, giving Europeans the right to know what data is stored on them and the right to have it deleted. Asked what parts of the EU law he would not extend worldwide, Zuckerberg said: "We're still nailing down details on this, but it should directionally be, in spirit, the whole thing." He did not elaborate.
Zuck my dick (Score:5, Insightful)
Facebook must die.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Facebook must die.
Self regulation must die as an economic doctrine.
Regulate the fuck out of these monsters. +1000 for the Europeans. Lets see the Orangutan and his court do something useful for the american people for once.
Re: (Score:2)
" Swedes Turn Against Cashlessness" on Slashdot today is posted what its like to woke to a Society where choice has been lost to private enterprise.
May the Swedes show us the way back to Reason, Choice and Community where rights live free.
Of course (Score:5, Insightful)
Business as usual. Zuckerberg likes to come out and talk about how FB cares and wants the best for humanity, but in reality they consistently put the company's survival first and do the bare minimum for the rest of us. That's how huge companies become huge companies and stay in business, so this shouldn't come as a shock.
Zuckerberg seems like a decent enough chap but he's out of his depth running such a big, pervasive company, and he doesn't even realize it. Hard to fault him, but hard to trust him.
Re: (Score:2)
Hard to fault him
Why? He's earned billions of dollars specifically because of what Facebook is.
Re: (Score:2)
Hard to fault him? He's a 51% owner, CEO and founder of Facebook. What are you talking about?
--
"Whats up doc?" -- B. Bunny
Re: (Score:2)
He's a 51% owner
No, don't you remember? He told everyone that he was donating his Facebook stock to charity.
Re: (Score:2)
So he's now a tax cheat, too?
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
All such companies are built on a model where they make money by inserting themselves in a system and positioning as the broker bringing value to two entities: the end user (facebook social media as we know it), and their customers (advertisement agencies). There is no "decent chap" altruism here IMHO except may be the usual billionaire wants to get remembered for the good he did. Nothing wrong, but nothing new. If Facebook can avoid the Privacy Laws it will. Because it hurts its bottom-line. Not for any ot
Re: (Score:1)
"Business as usual. Zuckerberg likes to come out and talk about how FB cares and wants the best for humanity,"
He means "lizard people", not "humanity".
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Translation: We'll get away with as much as we can, wherever we can
No shit Sherlock (Score:5, Insightful)
That said, a lot of folks don't care for the regulations; since after all they either don't use Facebook or feel confident they can control their data themselves. e.g. let the free market sort it out.
Re: (Score:2)
The billions that are still using Facebook.
Re: (Score:1)
The remainers form a demographic, though.
It probably is enough that it's being noticed.
Multinationals Only Ones With Your Data (Score:4)
Re:Multinationals Only Ones With Your Data (Score:4, Informative)
EU authorities are not interested in imposing large fines for single developers or even SMEs unless you're doing something really large scale or incredibly stupid. Those big fines are intended for the Facebooks and the Equifaxes of the world given the large scope of data that they collect and the harm that may be caused as a result of their (mal)practices.
It'd be worth learning directly from the regulators themselves on what they're looking for from small businesses:
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/smedataprotect/index_en.htm
False dichotomy (Score:2, Interesting)
Also I take the same kind of training every year too. Yours is way off base. Yes, people can email you. Now, what you _can't_ do is use those emails for a purpose other than the one you told peopl
Re: (Score:3)
After taking my corporate training on the European privacy law, I can say that only multinationals will have the legal departments and resources able to so much as keep a copy of their user's email addresses. I am concerned that I'm going to have to suspend email support for my side apps. I really really can't pay a 10M Euro fine for the $100 a year I make in app sales to Europe. I don't have a dedicated privacy officer; there's only me writing apps. My apps don't even collect any data, but I do give out my email address so people do write me. If that's what you want. Only large multinationals able to make software that keeps track of a user's private data; that's what you are getting in Europe.
The maximum fine under GDPR is 4% of annual turnover; so in the unlikely event that that you were ever prosecuted your fine would be $25 (based on your $100 business). If you are simply replying to user emails, GDPR is unlikely to impact you at all. Even if you are maintaining a register of your customers, GDPR in essence just means (a) only holding personal data that is absolutely required for the business relationship, (b) ensuring your customers know what data you are holding and consent to it, (c) keepi
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And the whatever is larger is 10 million Euros. Please imagine being a sole proprietor faced with doing business in an environment where a single mistake would lead to a 10 million Euro fine. Oh, I get to rely on the well known compassion of bureaucrats.
The actual legislation on the fines and penalties [gdpreu.org] says _up to_ 10 million (or 2% of turnover if greater than 10 million) for a lower level infringement, and _up to_ 20 million euro (or 4% of turnover if greater than 20 million) for a higher level infringement.
The key phrase is "up to"; "up to" 10 million can be $50, $100, $500, or $1000. There are 10 specific criteria [gdpreu.org] for assessing seriousness of the breach and the appropriate the size of the fine, including the type of data exposed, the number of people af
Re:Multinationals Only Ones With Your Data (Score:4, Interesting)
"After taking my corporate training on the European privacy law"
Oh dear, it sounds awfully like your employer bought the services of one of those parasite companies that has been fear mongering over GDPR in their training sessions so that they can sell you their other services to help you be GDPR compliant.
I had the misfortune of trying to find out what our obligations were in a few areas under GDPR, I read various articles online all contradicting each other, then I went and just read the legislation. Turns out my obligations are minimal compared to what the shit peddlers are trying to flog with their fear mongering.
If you're not collecting any PII you don't need a dedicated privacy officer. If people send you personal info all you have to do is make sure you delete it after an appropriate amount of time (which most major mail clients support), store it securely, such as in an encrypted mail store (which most major mail clients support), provide people the data you have on them whilst being able to charge them for the privilege and can be as simple as forwarding their e-mails with PII in right back at them whilst making a profit on the effort, and being able to tell people their data has been stolen if you are hacked, which is just a case of loading up your mailbox backup after the fact and bulk mailing everyone in your PII folder to let them know.
This is hardly a burden, this isn't far removed from how the vast majority of people manage their e-mail day to day anyway.
If you're only making $100 a year in Europe it doesn't sound like you actually have a European presence anyway, so if it's that much of a burden it's hardly a loss anyway, so I don't really see the problem. The cost of complying with GDPR for small businesses is clearly negligible though either way beyond the negligible time cost of setting up a few filters and automatic backup in Outlook or whatever - again, something any sane business owner is likely to be doing anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
Lemme guess, your boss bought some snakeoil peddler's spin who wanted to sell you a lot of "courses" and "consulting"?
Most EU laws by default contain clauses and provisions for commensurability. Which basically means that what you have to do is proportional to what you want to do. The privacy concerns and security required to store a few mail addresses of people who explicitly handed you their mail address so you can contact them is trivial.
It's a considerably different matter when you store everything abou
Re: (Score:2)
GDPR will also apply to small businesses under 250 employees if the processing carried out is likely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of data subjects, the processing is not occasional, or the processing includes special categories of data as defined in GDPR Article 9.
So, I have no idea based on that (which I guess is technically in English) what constitutes a small business exception. I'd have to hire a specialist
Re: (Score:2)
Or just read the regulations - they're not difficult.
Re: (Score:2)
Either the EU has decided to kill each and every non-multinational corporation/entity which handles data, or you misunderstood something. My money's on the latter.
Privacy (Score:3)
He may have lost ground in the EU, but he will be doubling down on the rest of the world, and raking as much as he can off the top personally.
Facebook will eventually die but Zuc will still be a very wealthy man.
Re: (Score:1)
Is there a place-of-birth requirement that prevents him from running for President in the People's Republic of China? I'm sure he can manage a Party membership without needing to brush up for the test.
Re: Questionably European Shadow Profiles? (Score:1)
You can always request that they delete any data they have on you, as long as you can prove that you own your information.
Re: (Score:2)
Would be interesting to try. Tell them to delete everything they have from you without disclosing what is "you", then sue when they don't find all your phone numbers and mail addresses.
Re: (Score:3)
Try that as your defense.
"Your honor, I did comply with many parts of the law. I did not kill, maim, threaten or cause other bodily harm to the absent couple when I broke into their home".
Good luck with that Zuck... (Score:2, Interesting)
GDPR effectively applies to the whole world, unless a company decides they do not want to operate in the EU. For Facebook, not operating in the EU would probably mean blocking all EU IP addresses (and probably email addresses by domain as well) and warning all new users that they are not allowed to use FB from the EU. Thatâ(TM)s not going to happen, so FB will need to comply.
If a US citizen is traveling in the EU for 10 days or more, GDPR applies. There are a number of other cases like this where it
Re: (Score:3)
It's simple hubris. I got away with it in the past, why worry about it in the future?
Re: (Score:2)
https://www.eugdpr.org/gdpr-fa... [eugdpr.org]
What are the penalties for non-compliance? Organizations can be fined up to 4% of annual global turnover for breaching GDPR or €20 Million. This is the maximum fine that can be imposed for the most serious infringements e.g.not having sufficient customer consent to process data or violating the core of Privacy by Design concepts. There is a tiered approach to fines e.g. a company can be fined 2% for not having their records in order (article 28), not notifying the supervising authority and data subject about a breach or not conducting impact assessment. It is important to note that these rules apply to both controllers and processors -- meaning 'clouds' will not be exempt from GDPR enforcement
reality (Score:1)
yup. this proves that all this recent privacy talk is lip service.
What kind of retarded question is that? (Score:3)
Why do you ask Facebook if they would apply the privacy laws used against them in areas where they don't have to? That's like asking a criminal if he's not going to rob a home in areas where robbery is legal.
Re: (Score:2)
What a company does is dictated by the amount of money it costs them and the amount of money it makes them. Nothing else. Your example first of all assumes that there is another bank with better security and that enough customers care about it to offset the loss of revenue from information sales.
What we're talking here is VASTLY more money being made by selling that private information. Even if FB wasn't the biggest privacy wholeseller but had the size of what's left of MySpace, it would STILL be more profi
GDPR is awesome (Score:3)
Until May there's a 10 quid charge for making a subject access request. From May that charge goes away, you can make them for free.
So I'll be writing to Facebook, and Twitter, and Google, and the credit agencies, and a few other organisations and demanding all of my data from them.
Then I'll be writing to Facebook, and Twitter, (etc), and inviting them to delete or correct all my data.
After that, because it's free, I'll be writing to them all again to request a copy of my data. At this point either changes will have been made or I start making money.
It's lovely.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Not the worse template. I think I'd write it a little differently, but he's covered almost all of the key points.
Re: (Score:2)
Were I planning to send five requests a month then that clause (of which I was already aware) would indeed apply.
I'm not. I'm planning to make two requests, the second 2-3 months after receiving the results from the first, for the purposes of assuring that the corrections required have been made.
That's not vexatious, unfounded, repetitive or excessive and I'm happy to discuss that in front of a judge if required.
Sorry, US no free ride (Score:2)
If you WANT European-style privacy protections You have to Move to Europe, OR get your US legislators to pass similar laws.
And US legislative hearings are just a charade for your politicians to make you think they care.
There's no right to just grill Facebook and get them to do whatever you want them to do in respect to your privacy. They're only going to protect your information and give you privacy rights in the way that LAWS require them to AND prevent them from casting away by written agreements.
Technically they don't have a choice (Score:1)
EU privacy rights apply to EU citizens in the EU and North America under data treaties, and to a whole list of other nations.
So, in effect, if FB doesn't do this, it's in violation.
European law (Score:2)
The European law, called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
There is no European law. National parliaments, not EU institutions, vote laws.