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Facebook CEO Says Not Planning To Extend European Privacy Law Globally (reuters.com)
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.
Facebook must die.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Not companies based on their goodwill (ie. PR
) motivations...
"Facebook CEO Says Not Planning To Extend European Privacy Law Globally"
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.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
if you want these kinds of protections in the States you're gonna have to start voting people in who believe in government regulation. As it stands the party in charge of our 3 branches of government has opposing government regulation as a central plank of it's party platform.
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.
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Privacy is an anathema to Facebook. The whole reason for facebook to exist is to gather as much information about everyone they can and sell that information to whom ever is willing to pay for it.
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.
"... be, in spirit, the whole thing."
Except the data that makes money, he means. This lack of commitment is the biggest admission that Facebook doesn't want subscribers to have privacy. They've been doing this for a decade, why are people still surprised?
> 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.
Wow. Learned nothing. I really hate this guy.
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.
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.
What this really implies to me is that given the choice, FB isn't really interested in giving its users a choice...
do people insist on being USED again and again and again by these companies that have ZERO respect for privacy? I simply don't understand the *need* to use any social media. I have been told again and again that I need social media to find a job. I never have and I never will. Social media is not a need, it's a want. No employer will ever mandate the need to have social media as a requirement for hire.
If the policy is not universal, how will facebook know if their shadow profile of me is covered? I have multiple phone numbers: some in Europe, some in North America, some in Asia. Assuming most of my friends have synched their contacts with facebook, they know my email address and a half-dozen phone numbers for me. How would facebook know whether I have a privacy-enhanced shadow account or not, unless I explicitly agree to set up a real account?
if the law's broke the solution isn't to say to devil with regulations and let everyone have as much info on you as they can claw out before you die. The solution is to fix the law. It's not that hard to carve out an exception for sending emails back and forth. You're giving up way, way too easy in that regard.
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 people you gathered them for. And even in the States you'll get hit with CAN-SPAM if you try that sort of nonsense.
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Holy smoke. This sense of entitlement:
"Facebook already complies with many parts of the law..."
"Your Honor, we surely comply with most laws. We just want to choose which ones we comply with".
Who does this dick think he is?
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 becomes impractical to try to treat EU and non-EU users differently.
There are many different ways a company can end up in violation of GDPR. Penalties are 4% of annual global turnover or â20 Million which ever is greater. For FB, Iâ(TM)m pretty sure it would be the 4%. Ouch!
The fact that Zuck is making statements like this now means that he is either stupid and didnâ(TM)t talk to his legal team first or more likely FB has been ignoring this issue and will be caught with their pants down shortly.
There is no excuse for FB being so clueless about GDPR this late in the game. The rest of the industry has been frantically prepairing for many months.
yup. this proves that all this recent privacy talk is lip service.
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.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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.
Not just Facebook. The evil forced data collection happens on most devices and apps.
Windows 10, Roomba etc. You can't trust a piece of technology these days.
We should all start lobbying for more than EU strict privacy laws.
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.
I am a dual citizen living in Canada, as such i do not know how these requests are processed in Europe. Do i need to have residency or is citizenship enough? How will Facebook deal with such requests from people who do have residency but also travel and live in Canada for part of the year? Especially considering that they have a one person one account policy?
In this case Zuck is just trying to stem the bleeding from his company because if he said that he was going to extend those protections world wide FB stock would drop even further.
GDPR became EU law on 14 April 2016. (And was in preparation since 2012). It is not a case of "...ahead of its implementation in May". It's already implemented. What runs out at the end of 24th May is the amnesty period for non-compliance.
GDPR is more complex than "we ignore it outside of Europe". It covers all personal data processed in Europe And any personal data for a European citizen irrelevant of where the data is held and processed.
If I (European citizen) not part of Facebook have my details added to Facebook by a friend (non European) in SomeCountryNotInEuropeBurge, my data is still covered by GDPR.
This is critical to my rights as a European citizen. My personal data should be respected in the same way as my passport is.
Facebook, you provide an amazing service to the world, but please know that not everyone wants their data processed by you.
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.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Facebook is awful. That said, some of the GDPR implementation details are dumb, and others are well meaning but a pain in the butt to implement for very little value. You can do a lot better on handling data misuse rather than following it strictly to the letter.
The European law, called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
There is no European law. National parliaments, not EU institutions, vote laws.