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Five EU Countries Taken To Court For Failing To Implement Cookie Law
concertina226 writes "The European Commission announced on Thursday that it has asked the European Court of Justice to impose fines on Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia for not transposing binding telecoms rules into their national laws. The official deadline for doing so was 25 May last year. These telecoms rules are aimed at protecting users' privacy online. They also require companies to notify users about any data breach without undue delay and to allow customers to switch fixed or mobile phone operators without changing their phone number, within one working day. But the main sticking point in the telecoms package appears to be the requirement for Web companies to obtain 'explicit consent' from Internet users before storing cookies."
Greece borrows a fuckton of money, pisses it up the wall and then throws a massive sulk when asked to pay it back. Meanwhile Germany makes stuff that people want to buy.
Just who's being subjugated here?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Err...
1. Session cookies are key in allowing Google to track and store more data than it should.
2. In France at least, the EC expressed concerns about the French government storing too much, not too little. So, not sure where you get the idea of the EU promoting police states.
3. Historically, the EU has always progressed in times of crisis. The US got federalism more or less right two centuries ago. We'll get it more or less right soon enough.
4. Unless the Euro breaks up (which I think is unlikely), rebalancing will likely occur through fiscal union, pan-EU projects (à la Ariane or Airbus), and increased (some already exist) subsidies from more competitive regions to less competitive ones.
5. Actually, Iceland recently made news because it was at the EU's door, almost begging to enter, and rather eager to adopt the Euro. The part they got right, which neither you nor we did, is to lock up their bankers in jail after clawing their wages back. (And I'm confident we'll get it right too, eventually.)
Greece borrows a fuckton of money, pisses it up the wall and then throws a massive sulk when asked to pay it back.
I think the sulk is not even for having to pay it back but for being required to follow a number of rules that might make them stop pissing more fucktons of money up the wall.
This cookie law does not require consent for all cookies. Unfortunately, the media, including Slashdot continues to carry this myth. This is the spin that the advertising industry is (successfully) putting on this issue...
I requires consent for cookies that are not "strictly necessary for a service explicitly requested by the user". So session cookies are safe for example.
Consent is mainly required for TRACKING cookie.
Greece borrows a fuckton of money, pisses it up the wall and then throws a massive sulk when asked to pay it back. Meanwhile Germany makes stuff that people want to buy.
The past Greek governments have done a terrible job and now the country suffers for it - this is undoubtedly true. It is also true that the German economy has been much better.
However, Germany has benefited enormously from sharing a currency with them. Being one of the world's largest exporters, they benefit from a relatively weak currency. If they had their own currency now they would be like Switzerland - a safe haven in the crisis, with a very strong currency and problems with exports.
But currently the problems in the other countries devalue the euro, meaning Germany gets to export at great prices. Meanwhile the crisis-hit euro countries have an over-valued currency, and they can't do anything about it. Basically, Germany gets a huge boost for free and pretends it's all due to working hard.
Germany is resisting money-printing and collective eurobonds which would give the crisis-hit countries an opportunity to grow again. They want the others to sort their own things out - but if the others run out of options and crash, Germany might end up wishing they had done something.
FWIW I'm in one of the rich and balanced euro countries. Doesn't matter, I still think we need something else than "tough love" to solve this.
What a load of bullcrap.
Do you know how easy it was for me to start up a company in Norway? Required only internet access and a couple of days, and that was 8 years ago.
In greece, you'd be lucky with 10 months and lots of bribes. E.g. check out this article. And there's plenty of renowned international studies into corruption, ease of business, etc, and the Northern European countries top all those.
There's no grand conspiracy, no effort at keeping the south down through infrastructure loans or anything. The countries that are doing excellent through this crisis, e.g. the Northern European countries, do so for entirely obvious reasons.
It might have been slightly naive of us to think that Greece would have taken the out-stretched hand and used it to reform into a prosperous European social-democratic country, not try to steal our watch and rings to waste on wine and dance.
I agree 100%. It's worth adding that the bailouts that greece/ireland etc have recieved are being used to pay back (largely) french and german banks and bondholders. The bailout will then be repaid by greek/irish taxpayers.
Be in no illusion. This is not a bailout of the Greeks, but of rich German bondholders. This is why the Greeks are protesting.
The greeks didn't protest when all the money was loaned to them in the first place so they could go on a massive public sector spending binge and buy the fast cars and beachfront villas. Now its somehow the fault of the organisations who loaned it that the greedy tax dodging greeks are in this mess because they didn't understand Economics 101?? On yer bike pal.
Bloomberg wants to outlaw cookies in NYC
- My ex's family were from Greece. Business there was as business in any Southern European country: stronger sense of family and community, so local businesses which were perceived as ethical would thrive, whereas people in it for a quick buck would be viewed with suspicion and would have regulations more stringently applied. Health&Safety in Britain is much more intrusive than there.
Wow, I didn't expect it but (not kidding) you've seriously opened my eyes.
Ignoring for the moment the rather unfortunate comparison you did to China (do you even realize the argument you made there???), when considering the situation in southern europe I at least _assumed_ that the population in general was conscious of the reasons why they were uncompetitive and just acted out of self-interest.
That the family and community business thing you described above is seen as a good thing makes clear that they got no fucking clue. I can hardly think of a way to structure a business environment that would lead to more corruption than that. When your neighbor or cousine's business is threatened by a more competitive smartass from out-of-town, the 'family and community' oriented society would see it as normal to put in any and all obstacles possible.
Fuck that, I guess Greece really is destined to leave the Euro. (And having left a sour taste in the mouth of leaders up north from all those protests and threats to the Euro stability in order to 'renegotiate', etc, reconstruction 'aid' won't be very forthcoming)