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What is sad is that the EU commission doesn't take real action against Google. At best we are to expect a slap in the hand, at worst, the investigations will dr
by wtdata 7y ago
What is sad is that the EU commission doesn't take real action against Google. At best we are to expect a slap in the hand, at worst, the investigations will drag on and nothing will happen.
- Barrin92 7y agoGoogle has been fined a 5 billion dollar fine already last year, that claim simply isn't true. But I agree with the implicit demand, they clearly haven't gotten the message. The EU should slap them with billion dollar fines again until they learn their lesson.
- moomin 7y agoQ4 2018 earnings were around $40 billion. EU will have to try significantly harder.
- mlthoughts2018 7y agoIt will have to be executive jailtime and personal fines or it will never matter.
- icebraining 7y agoThat's the revenue, not profit.
- inetknght 7y agoThat's also the point. Profit shouldn't have anything to do with fines. Redress and compensation should. A fine is supposed to make business-as-usual unpalatable.
- icebraining 7y agoSure, I'm just pointing it out because "earnings" usually means "profit".
- cryoshon 7y ago5 billion is peanuts to google. if the fine is low enough that it can be written off as a cost of business, it's too low. effective fines devastate profit margins rather than merely crimping them.
- kittiepryde 7y agoDoing some quick googling, it looks like their quarterly revenue is in the 6-7 billion range. I don't believe 20%ish of revenue is in the peanuts range. Edit: doing some more googling, maybe it's in the 10 billion range; getting better for Google, but I still can't see a company deciding that such a fine is irrelevant.
- rbavocadotree 7y agoQ2'19 Revenue was 39.7 Billion. Income was 9.2 Billion.
- elorant 7y agoIt's not peanuts. Fines are meant as a warning. You keep ignoring them eventually they'll hit you with something that will really hurt.
- eptcyka 7y agoWould you like to transfer 1/8th of your yearly earnings to my account? After all, it's just peanuts.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- wtdata 7y agoThat fine qualifies as a "slap in the hand" for Google if it happens infrequently enough (which is the case).
- icebraining 7y agoIt's not that infrequent; they got another $1.7B fine this year. Remember that these processes take a long time, but they are running in parallel.
- cj 7y agoI believe the $5 billion was an antitrust violation, not related to GDPR. I could be wrong.
- docker_up 7y agoThe executives should face jail time. That would certainly light a fire under Google's ass to finally "do no evil".
- inlined 7y agoSadly mid-level employees would probably be the ones going to jail. The tech lead and/or PM sign off on compliance. I used to joke that one of my responsibilities was to put my freedom at stake. None of my products violate GDPR in any way I could conceive, but I’d hate to be handed down a mandate to do so. Both not accepting a project and not signing off on it are pretty bold moves.
- inlined 7y agoCommon retort: don’t just downvote me, tell me why I’m wrong. I’m a professional who had signed off on legal documents. Why would the buck not stop at me? That’s the way it works in architecture and other professions.
- jodrellblank 7y agoCommon retort: don’t just downvote me, tell me why I’m wrong. "Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading." - https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- hobofan 7y agoI _think_ this rule is intended to discourage "Have an upvote" (and similar) comments, commonly seen on Reddit. Reminding fellow readers/commenters to not just shallowly dismiss comments once in a while doesn't do much harm, and actually lead me to reply to the parent.
- hobofan 7y agoEven though it's not optimal, maybe that's what it takes? Then top-tier engineers would think twice about working for companies with shady privacy practices and Google would finally have an incentive to better themselves.
- Dirlewanger 7y agoSure you didn't mean to say that what's actually sad is that the US federal government/DoJ doesn't take real action?
- wtdata 7y agoWell, I am an European, it's sad about the US Gov./DoJ, but that is not something I have the right to demand from my part.
- wtdata 7y agoSeriously, what kind of idiots have downvoting rights on HN that they downvoted the above comment?
- dang 7y agoSome of your comments, like this one, have been breaking the site guidelines. Would you please review them and use HN more as intended? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- huntermeyer 7y agoFTC fined Facebook $5 billion this year for mishandling users’ personal information. The SEC fined them $100 million.
- cj 7y agoI was curious what the maximum fine for Google could be under GDPR. Google's 2018 revenue was $136.22 billion. GDPR allows for a maximum fine of 4% of global turnover. At a maximum 4%, GDPR could impose up to a $5.5 billion fine. I agree, getting something closer to the maximum might help the situation. Although ultimately, my bet is that Google is already baking the 4% revenue risk into their business model. If that's the case, GDPR's maximum penalty should be reconsidered.
- _Codemonkeyism 7y agoExecutives commit crimes and the company pays the fine. This way crimes are not prevented.