Facebook and Google already hit with $8.8 Billion in lawsuits due to GDPR - Polidicks

https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/25/17393766/facebook-google-gdpr-lawsuit-max-schrems-europe On the first day of GDPR enforcement, Facebook and Google have been hit with a raft of lawsuits accusing the companies of coercing users into sharing personal data. The lawsuits, which seek to fine Facebook 3.9 billion and Google 3.7 billion euro (roughly $8.8 billion in dollars), were filed by Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems, a longtime critic of the companies’ data collection practices. GDPR requires clear consent and justification for any personal data collected from users, and these guidelines have pushed companies across the internet to revise their privacy policies and collection practices. But there is still widespread uncertainty over how European regulators will treat the requirements, and many companies are still unprepared for enforcement. Both Google and Facebook have rolled out new policies and products to comply with GDPR, but Schrems’ complaints argue those policies don’t go far enough. In particular, the complaint singles out the way companies obtain consent for the privacy policies, asking users to check a box in order to access services. It’s a widespread practice for online services, but the complaints argue that it forces users into an all-or-nothing choice, a violation of the GDPR’s provisions around particularized consent. Shrems told the Financial Times that the existing consent systems were clearly noncompliant. “They totally know that it’s going to be a violation,” he said. “They don’t even try to hide it.”

oh I thought it was 8.8 billion each, that's a little misleading

The way the court cases play out will play an important role in determining how things will work in the future.

Say what you want about EU. At least they have the fucking balls to tear ass at these companies.

also fun fact, the verge (source used) is doing the same tactic to EU users, putting up a unclosable "I accept" box that covers over half the page https://i.imgur.com/kVb9IQx.png

my favourite part of GDPR is learning just how many of these fucking companies were taking my info most shocking was fucking razer

Think it will ever get so bad that Facebook will have to be paid for? Now THAT would send shockwaves across the world.

Why am I not surprised in the least? Google and Facebook both have no regard at all for personal privacy.

Not a surprise to me at all, pretty much any time some company makes me install some shit software to use their hardware I assume they're taking data and selling it. Especially when it's someone like NVIDIA intentionally blocking features behind an account.

News flash: IT's literally every company on the internet.

As a rule of thumb you should always assume that any given thing that you access via a computer is going to be recording anonymous usage statistics at the very least.

I truly hope the courts are reasonable; as far as I can tell, in the strictest interpretation, a website doing something as simple as displaying your IP address to you (without storing it or doing anything else with it) without your express consent before hand is in violation of the GDPR. See https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/reform/what-constitutes-data-processing_en and https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/reform/rules-business-and-organisations/legal-grounds-processing-data/grounds-processing/when-can-personal-data-be-processed_en

We'll see. The EU isn't as bought as the US is.

You can search for "EU lawsuit against <tech company>" and you'll see the EU doesn't really fuck around

I'm not sure why that's problematic? If the user really wants to see their IP displayed they can give their consent in one second and be done with it.

Thank you EU for becoming the new defender of the free world, my country has failed in that aspect :<

True, on one hand we want to crack down on companies using data as currency but at the same time the new laws are very wide-sweeping. That's what worries me the most about GDPR; useful services having to shut down because they can't or won't be made compliant. WHOIS for example.

Well that escalated quickly. Maybe this will stops these fake news / conspiracy bot things going wild (at least in EU).

Because needing to get consent for something that basic is absolutely nuts? If you're even attempting to connect to website, they already have your IP. It's not secret.

AHAHA YES

There is no option to switch them all off at once, Pretty sure that still breaks GDPR rules

The best part is that facebook has been going full damage control for at least a week with ads on TV and their site.

Had to accept the the terms before I could read the post that criticized those very same terms. How ironic.

You think garry would actually bother making FP GDPR compliant

I keep seeing the same one at work that just appeals to emotion. Where it shows a bunch of "family videos" on a polaroid and basically says "Remember when we were a thing for family memories? We still are and we promise that's all we are, we swear!" I haven't used facebook in months, I keep it on because I need it to stay in contact with my already small social circle(and my family who insist I have one), but even then I rarely reply to them, maybe once a day and that's to confirm an actual hang out or just sending shitposts to each other. The last couple of statues I made were just onion article sharing

I mean, that's exactly why there are forces at work trying to tear apart the EU with stuff like Brexit.

Your face when it turns out a certain Hot Oil Extractor is a paid Facebook PR employee.

Shit, even if the company isn't recording the stats themselves there's a good chance things like browsing habits are being given to third party tracking agencies live as you click around the site. And a fair few of them still don't listen to Do Not Track, so without some kind of ad blocker installed and up to date you're almost guaranteed to be giving someone, somewhere data that without enough effort could be de anonymised.

You miss the point in his posts where he expressly pointed out how you don't even need to store it to be GDPR non-compliant.

See this is what I love about Firefox, I can inspect elements and basically cut out the pieces of code on the page that I don't want, including these stupid full-page ads/cookie agreements.