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by jonathanstrange 242 days ago
They're the same for the majority of people in Europe. We use EU and Europe synonymously very often. The UK doesn't even allow end-to-end encryption any longer and has some Draconian surveillance laws. I very much doubt it can be GDPR compliant so it's better to list them separately.
2 comments
matt-p 242 days ago
"The UK doesn't even allow end-to-end encryption" thats 100% not true, just completely false.

"has some Draconian surveillance laws", sure and what EU countries don't - you must be joking?

"I very much doubt it can be GDPR compliant" The GDPR is retained in domestic law, it's literally the exact same situation as before brexit.

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jonathanstrange 242 days ago
It is true because a cryptosystem is by definition not end-to-end encrypted if a third party can read the plaintext, and that's exactly what UK law mandates.

> "I very much doubt it can be GDPR compliant" The GDPR is retained in domestic law, it's literally the exact same situation as before brexit.

That's not the stance of legal scholars and judges in the EU, for the same reasons as there are doubts that US companies can be GDPR compliant. Let's just say that the alleged GDPR compliance hasn't been tested in court yet and is a legal gamble. Whether a EU company is willing to take that gamble or not depends on many factors and is up to them, of course.

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matt-p 242 days ago
I'm aware. I think the EU have being trying to co-opt the word european which is absolutely insane. You will see it frequently from EU politicians "Europe will back ukraine with X". Putin and erm I imagine 3/4s of Russias population lives in Europe.
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jonathanstrange 242 days ago
Who cares what you think is insane. That's the way people think and talk in Europe, and it makes sense. Maybe in the UK people think of Russia when someone talks about Europe but certainly no one does that in the EU. In this case, it makes a lot of sense not to include the UK (or Russia) because people looking for alternatives to US cloud providers for legal reasons are going to have the same or even more concerns about the UK (viz., Russia).
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matt-p 242 days ago
It's ok for you all to believe european === EU, but that is a EU only view (and factually incorrect). Also OK for you to buy stuff only from within the EU, I can understand why you'd want to do that, but obviously people outside the EU will be surprised to see you defining europe as the EU.
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jonathanstrange 242 days ago
I doubt they will be surprised. Bear in mind that many people in Europe who live outside the EU want to be part of the EU. Polls show that quite consistently for the UK, too. (Though, to be fair, you could easily ask the poll question in a way that would give the opposite majority.)
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matt-p 242 days ago
Speaking as one, they usually are. I mean polling is mostly BS, all the polling said the that UK was staying in the EU even as the voting opened - look how that turned out. Actually the polls were about the same (~65%) as the polls in say france today which say 68% in favour of EU membership - so could I say france wants to leave the EU? All total rubbish.
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