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Comment by tsss | Hacker News Reader

And why is that bad? I don't care if the software I'm using is coming from the US and if there are going to be globally dominant European internet companies. The only thing that counts to me is getting a good product, which privacy regulations are critical for, and getting taxes, which also requires more regulation not less.

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Of course you don't. But European citizens care about economic growth, because it provides work and creates wealth and tax revenue for European citizens.

If you were a European citizen you might be concerned about Europe's ability to compete in the Technology sector.

Europe's ability to compete in the Technology sector is just dandy. It's the EU's ability to compete in the "tech" sector that might fall behind, and maybe that's a good thing.

Last I heard Germany was squarely situated in Europe.

I think European regulations like GDPR or cookie laws have made the Internet worse, not better. They're not effective and make things more complicated for everyone.

I think that people in government should design rules to provide equal opportunities to everyone. I think that will benefit you even if you see yourself only as a consumer. I agree with what the article says, the European regulations only benefit the bigger companies, which have the resources to handle the red tape.

Don't forget articles 15 and 17 (former 11 and 13 I think) of the copyright directive. Link taxes and content filters which only benefit the big tech corps.

I disagree on the GDPR one. It's the only piece of legislation that protects my data online.

Prior to GDPR any data that you create wasn't yours and was freely sold, traded and aggregated. Even if you asked Google, Facebook or whoever for YOUR data to be sent back to you; they wouldn't be obligated to.

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