Hacker News Reader

Comment by TomMarius | Hacker News Reader

Hijacking the top comment: Can someone explain me why EU was considered knowledgable about the internet in case of GDPR, but isn't now? Have they lost their knowledge in the meantime?

View on HN

I think they just shifted into the general direction of regulating the internet more and are listening to anyone who's complaining loudly and then just copypasting their ideas into legislation, instead of coming up with the specifics themselves. It just so happens that they heard the privacy guys first over the copyright guys first.

I wouldn't say the EU had knowledge to begin with. While GDPR was a step in the right direction, how poorly, and vaguely it was written created problems. GDPR isn't a concrete thing, but a high-level set of guidelines with no clear direction on what falls into each camp. This is why leading up to GDPR there were n consultancies, and articles vocalising "Our interpretation of GDPR".

GDPR was a legislative accident: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Philipp_Albrecht

Also: Democracy (a 2015 Documentary by David Bernet)

Please don't hijack the top comment.

The GDPR has nothing to do with the internet specifically.

I'm not sure what you mean. GDPR has everything to do with Internet, the Internet has been the whole reason it was created. Without the internet, the previous laws were OK. During the discussions (on state-level politics as well) only the internet was mentioned that frequently along with internet companies such as Facebook and Google, except for the note that it of course affects everything else.

Even if GDPR was merely touching the internet, it is touching the internet, which is my point - people said things like "the people in EU know what they're doing", why isn't it true now?

Parent is right, but you're right it was created because of it.

But it applies to processing of personal data, this is independent of if it happens over the internet or not.

I know, thus the "except for the note that it of course affects everything else" part. However all discussions revolved around the internet and the internet was the sole reason why a change was made.

Because the GDPR people, just like the musicians supporting this copryright law, are incapable of seeing unintended consequences. As long as they get their “thing,” they are happy. But GDPR and the copyright law are coming from the same “place.” They are obviously different, but they are variations on the anti-American tech superiority theme that seems to be playing out across Europe.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com