this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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Privacy

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Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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EU unveils ‘revolutionary’ laws to curb big tech firms’ power (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Haven't seen any posts about this and it's a pretty big thing. From DMA website:

Examples of the “do’s”: gatekeepers will for example have to:

  • allow third parties to inter-operate with the gatekeeper’s own services in certain specific situations;
  • provide companies advertising on their platform with the tools and information necessary for advertisers and publishers to carry out their own independent verification of their advertisements hosted by the gatekeeper;
  • allow their business users to promote their offer and conclude contracts with their customers outside the gatekeeper’s platform.

Example of the “don'ts”: gatekeepers will for example no longer:

  • treat services and products offered by the gatekeeper itself more favourably in ranking than similar services or products offered by third parties on the gatekeeper's platform;
  • prevent users from un-installing any pre-installed software or app if they wish so;
  • track end users outside of the gatekeepers' core platform service for the purpose of targeted advertising, without effective consent having been granted.

We'll see how this plays out but this is first move in a very long time that could open up platform like WhatsApp to 3rd party clients and force Google and Apple to open their mobile OSes to other apps. Maybe we'll see stock Android without play services? One can dream...

P.S. https://digital-markets-act-cases.ec.europa.eu - page about the legislation

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Not really a question, more of a statement. The U.S., China, even UK, and probably more have incredibly poor privacy laws, and keep aiming to strip even more privacy away. I'm just curious whats different about the EU that makes them do something actually good for people.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Sometimes things are done out of the goodness of people's hearts, which makes sense when policies are brought up by some individuals, but also opposed by others. Ultimately they usually land, maybe for the lesser power the big tech corporations hold over the EU, but also for an egoistical desire to safeguard one's own privacy that everyone has to some extent, especially people in power

[–] abrasiveteapot 2 points 1 year ago

As no seems to have answered this, the EU's political structure is more resistant to the anti-consumer desires of large corporates, particularly as the ones impacted aren't European.

Culturally the EU is diverse but broadly there is a lot more interest in / support for nurturing the common good (as opposed to beggar thy neighbour policies of the GOP). In particular pro-consumer policies are popular and get politicians re-elected, which segues to the next difference

The EU is less influenced (not zero, less) by political donations from large corporates than the US. Very little of the priorities of the average person makes it into law in the US, a slightly larger sliver gets through in the EU.