Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by throwaway35784 2411 days ago
Do you really believe they want gdpr? Or might they be more interested in keeping it out of America? I see no evidence they care about people's privacy, rather the opposite is intrinsic to their business model.
1 comments

> Do you really believe they want gdpr?

It's not ideal for them, but I believe it benefits their monopoly position. Implementing the technical and compliance measures required by the GDPR is trivial at the scale of Google, but a significant barrier to entry for smaller competitors.

I don't believe they care about people's privacy either, but it's a noble cause to be exploited. I think what they really want is regulatory hurdles that stifle competition, but have no real impact on their business.

I expect they want to shape emerging legislation to include the likes of: appoint a dedicated data protection officer; have a process by which customers can request their data; produce quarterly reports. Things which place a proportionately larger burden on smaller businesses (which perhaps can even be sold to them as services), but don't limit the collection or processing of data.