The Flat Earth Society

Other Discussion Boards => Technology & Information => Topic started by: Dr David Thork on June 02, 2018, 11:53:13 AM

Title: GDPR
Post by: Dr David Thork on June 02, 2018, 11:53:13 AM
Thanks Pete. Tbh, my board is so tiny and under the radar I don't think in practice I need to do anything.
To be honest, I don't think GDPR is even meant for small companies. I think it is part of a bigger EU/US trade war. The EU is very protectionist and getting worse by the day. The squealing about tariffs on steel is ridiculous. Why shouldn't America put tariffs on something it doesn't need? The point of trade is you trade the things you have a surplus of, for the things you need. America doesn't need steel. It can make enough of its own. Iron ore is very common, America has no shortage of labour.

GDPR is aimed squarely at tech giants. Facebook, Apple, Google. They are looting European countries. They give you nothing (nothing physical) and you give them money ... and then they find ways to pay zero tax on those sales. Europe doesn't have a single large tech company.

No EU search engine, no mainstream OS (Linux doesn't make money like Android, iOS or Windows), not a single large social media platform, no massive cloud companies like Amazon or Cloudflare or Microsoft, no massive online shops like Amazon, no huge streaming websites like youTube, Netflix or Twitch ... they've f'all. Hammering Tech doesn't hurt them at all, because there is no industry to hurt. The EU already killed every single tech company in Europe through over regulation over the last 30 years.

Phillips no longer make TVs, Siemens and Vodaphone don't make phones, ARM was the only silicon chip interest but that's been sold abroad, software companies like Amstrad, Sinclair, Atari ... all gone. Since the EU was formed and started legislating, the entire continent has regressed from being an Quaternary economy to a tertiary/secondary economy. We only do services (tertiary) like banking, but even lots of manufacturing and things like call centres have all gone abroad.

Rather than take a hard look at themselves and realise their protectionist policies have been utterly destructive to their own high tech businesses, the EU (arrogant unelected technocrats that they are) are digging their heels in even further. In trying to reduce the US and East Asian influence by regulating, they're going to make it impossible for pretty much anyone to have a global tech company in the EU.

Still, the ray of sunshine is Brexit ... maybe we can turn it around but Teresa May probably needs removing first.
Title: Re: GDPR
Post by: xasop on June 02, 2018, 12:03:24 PM
Split this rant off to somewhere more appropriate than S&C. Now to business...

Linux doesn't make money like Android

I can't stop laughing at this. You know that Android is Linux, right?
Title: Re: GDPR
Post by: Dr David Thork on June 02, 2018, 12:06:50 PM
Split this rant off to somewhere more appropriate than S&C. Now to business...

Linux doesn't make money like Android

I can't stop laughing at this. You know that Android is Linux, right?
Google is a huge tech company using Android and paying no one to use it. It makes a fortune from its app store. Linus Torvald is a peasant when compared with the likes of Sergey Brin or Bill Gates. Linux is not owned by a successful global tech giant that makes squillions of money.
Title: Re: GDPR
Post by: xasop on June 02, 2018, 12:12:21 PM
Google is a huge tech company using Android and paying no one to use it. It makes a fortune from its app store. Linus Torvald is a peasant when compared with the likes of Sergey Brin or Bill Gates. Linux is not owned by a successful global tech giant that makes squillions of money.

Of course Linux isn't "owned" by anybody. That's what makes it open-source. This doesn't mean that none of the people and companies who use it make any money from it, as you have correctly pointed out occurs with Android.

None of this makes any difference to the fact that "Linux doesn't make money like Android" is a hilariously nonsensical statement.

To top it all off, Linus Torvalds lives in the US, so it doesn't make any difference to your "EU a shit" rant whether or not he makes a lot of money out of it.
Title: Re: GDPR
Post by: Dr David Thork on June 02, 2018, 12:39:05 PM
Basically you need to go a long way down the list before you find a decent tech company in Europe.

Seimens is still the biggest EU tech company ... how do they compare to the likes of the Apple, Alphabet or Amazon?
Title: Re: GDPR
Post by: juner on June 03, 2018, 02:05:13 AM
GDPR is aimed squarely at tech giants. Facebook, Apple, Google. They are looting European countries. They give you nothing (nothing physical) and you give them money ... and then they find ways to pay zero tax on those sales. Europe doesn't have a single large tech company.

Ummm...

(in the interest of not spamming, Apple has one of the biggest, most efficient supply chains in the world..)
Title: Re: GDPR
Post by: Pete Svarrior on June 03, 2018, 01:32:56 PM
Still, the ray of sunshine is Brexit ... maybe we can turn it around but Teresa May probably needs removing first.
Unlikely. The GDPR was championed and vehemently supported by the UK's very own ICO. If anything, the common criticism in the UK is that the GDPR is not going far enough. Naturally, we can't know whether or not Tessie will make a sudden u-turn, but the current consensus is that it's very unlikely.
Title: Re: GDPR
Post by: Dr David Thork on June 03, 2018, 03:51:02 PM
Still, the ray of sunshine is Brexit ... maybe we can turn it around but Teresa May probably needs removing first.
Unlikely. The GDPR was championed and vehemently supported by the UK's very own ICO. If anything, the common criticism in the UK is that the GDPR is not going far enough. Naturally, we can't know whether or not Tessie will make a sudden u-turn, but the current consensus is that it's very unlikely.
I suspect once the effects of closing effective advertising channels hits the economy as companies take a profit bath, the rules will be somewhat loosened. I don't think they comprehend the impact on lead gen and customer retention that GDPR has.

GDPR is aimed squarely at tech giants. Facebook, Apple, Google. They are looting European countries. They give you nothing (nothing physical) and you give them money ... and then they find ways to pay zero tax on those sales. Europe doesn't have a single large tech company.

Ummm...

(in the interest of not spamming, Apple has one of the biggest, most efficient supply chains in the world..)
thinking more of the app store in their case, updating iOS to obsolete paid apps, built in obsolesce of the device itself to leave you with nothing in a few short years, that sort of thing.
Title: Re: GDPR
Post by: AATW on June 05, 2018, 01:33:21 PM
Still, the ray of sunshine is Brexit ...
Oh yeah, that's going just great.