Facebook To Put 1.5 Billion Users Out of Reach of New EU Privacy Law (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Facebook: If a new European law restricting what companies can do with people's online data went into effect tomorrow, almost 1.9 billion Facebook users around the world would be protected by it. The online social network is making changes that ensure the number will be much smaller. Facebook members outside the United States and Canada, whether they know it or not, are currently governed by terms of service agreed with the company's international headquarters in Ireland. Next month, Facebook is planning to make that the case for only European users, meaning 1.5 billion members in Africa, Asia, Australia and Latin America will not fall under the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which takes effect on May 25. That removes a huge potential liability for Facebook, as the new EU law allows for fines of up to 4 percent of global annual revenue for infractions, which in Facebook's case could mean billions of dollars.

Comments

EU Type protection for all users

[williamyf]

Facebook already stated that they will afford the same EU type level of protection for ALL the user base.

This change just aford them two things:
1.) Protection if by mistake they screw up and end up in a non-compliance event with EU directives (say, human error, security breach, inside attack). So, instead of all of the users suing, unly those in the EU suing.

2.) In case they have a change of heart and decide to not afford those protections any more, Is easier if the non-EU users are also outside EU jusrisdiction.

 

Re:EU Type protection for all users

[Joce640k]

Their problem with selective enforcement will be knowing that I'm not a European living somewhere else. One slip-up and... lawsuit!

Hopefully the USA and other countries will soon have similar laws, making this moot.

Facebook, et. al. are scum. The world needs this law. Are 'targeted ads' really enough of an excuse for what they do, ie. Are they really that much more valuable? I doubt it. Advertiser will still pay for ads.

Re:EU Type protection for all users

[Z00L00K]

Targeted ads are useless anyway. People encountering them gets the ads after they already have bought an item of that type.

Re:EU Type protection for all users

[Opportunist]

Targeted ads CAN be sensible if they're for the general type of item. When I buy a new CPU, showing me ads for graphic cards rather than running shoes is sensible.

Ok, that I have adblockers and keep tuning them to the point where no ads get shown render both moot but ... shhhh, keep the ad industry thinking it is relevant, so it keeps funding the pages we like!

"could mean billions of dollars"

[ebonum]

"fines of up to 4 percent of global annual revenue for infractions"
Revenue = 12.97B
4% = 518 million

https://www.google.com/search?...

I'm an American

[rsilvergun]

so they get to pay Irish tax rates, I ought to get Irish privacy. I ought to, but looks like I don't.

I do like how the EU does fines. A percentage of gross revenue. Here in the states we do dollar amounts, which tends to make them less than the profit from the crime.