Europe’s most famous technology law, the GDPR, is next on the hit list as the European Union pushes ahead with its regulatory killing spree to slash laws it reckons are weighing down its businesses.

The European Commission plans to present a proposal to cut back the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR for short, in the next couple of weeks. Slashing regulation is a key focus for Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as part of an attempt to make businesses in Europe more competitive with rivals in the United States, China and elsewhere.

  • Denixen@feddit.nu
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    32 minutes ago

    They intend to simplify compliance, not axe the law. And this is needed if Europe wants to make itself independent of USA and China on the tech front.

    You who are against this, have you ever had to deal with GDPR? It is a nightmare and I am certain American big tech is secretly celebrating it, because it kills any European startup alternatives, because they cannot afford to employ enough people to be compliant with the law and if they try to do it with existing personnel they don’t have enough time left over to actually run their business.

    If you have ever complained that there aren’t enough European alternatives, GDPR and other legislation is the reason why. USA shoots itself in the foot with tariffs and we Europeans shoot ourselves in the foot with regulations. I am just really glad the EU commission has realized this and are fixing it.

    • splendoruranium@infosec.pub
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      3 minutes ago

      have you ever had to deal with GDPR? It is a nightmare and I am certain American big tech is secretly celebrating it, because it kills any European startup alternatives, because they cannot afford to employ enough people to be compliant with the law and if they try to do it with existing personnel they don’t have enough time left over to actually run their business

      Am DPO. What do you mean? GDPR is trivial to deal with and you do not need to employ additional personnel beyond a DPO. They don’t even have to do it full time.

      There are certain few business models that explicitly rely on exploiting personal data, but them being slowed down is very much the intention.

    • DreasNil@feddit.nu
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      12 minutes ago

      I completely agree! GDPR was good in theory, but it’s really hindering us in practice. Coming from someone working in healthcare.

  • DreasNil@feddit.nu
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    13 minutes ago

    Finally!!! GDPR strongly needs a revision. I work in healthcare in Sweden, where many hospitals recently have gotten a new digital journal system. In theory it would be a really good one, but because of GDPR we still have to rely on printing papers, and sending them to other clinics via post or fax. How in the world does that protect our privacy better than just using the digital services that are built to do this?!

    All my patients expect me to have ready up on their medical history, and know what medications they take, so that I am up to date about what they need. But in order to do that, I first have to ask for their permission, and THEN open their journal. It has to be the other way around - that you can actively block healthcare personnel from reading your journal if you for some reason don’t want them to.

    Revising the GDPR to make it less intrusive in healthcare, would increase our ability to see more patients and spend less time on administrative tasks, which I think everyone is positive to.

    • splendoruranium@infosec.pub
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      56 seconds ago

      but because of GDPR we still have to rely on printing papers, and sending them to other clinics via post or fax

      I don’t know who told you this but that is certainly not mandated by GDPR. Could you elaborate on the situation?

  • atro_city@fedia.io
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    1 hour ago

    @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu are you trying to become the USA? Deregulation will make us just like them! Don’t undo all the good work you did!

  • biofaust@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    There is one thing that would make the GDPR easier: one single Data Protection Authority at Union level, with direct sanctioning powers.

    No more asking Ireland first only to get Norway and Germany telling you the opposite.

  • mocoma@lemm.ee
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    22 hours ago

    Yes this is the exact moment that we decide we want to be as similar to the US as possible. These neoliberals need to go.

    • sir_pronoun@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      Privacy matters, but it is really not good in its current shape. For example, it seriously hinders scientific research into contagious diseases because a lot of data of patients is incredibly hard to get or work on. There’s a lot more that could be done against epidemics if it wasn’t for the GDPR in its current shape.

        • sir_pronoun@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          This is not about consent but about databases that already exist and that could be anonymized easily, treasure troves of data for medical research, but even anonymously that data can’t be used because of stupid red tape

          • Thorned_Rose@sh.itjust.works
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            8 hours ago

            You do realise that most medical research these days is for-profit? The only thing opening these databases to medical research will do is increase the profit lining the pockets of the already mega wealthy (and corrupt) industrial medical complex.

            • sir_pronoun@lemmy.world
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              6 hours ago

              Jfc you tankie, just because someone makes money from selling medication, do you really think the person receiving the medication is sad about the existence of the medication? You are literally saying “let’s not cure or prevent diseases because someone could make money from it”, how removed can you be

              Also, I was talking about state funded medical research into how the spread of contagious diseases could be halted, which would only have resulted in regulatory actions. That’s just one example. Get your head out of your own ass

              • Saleh@feddit.org
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                4 hours ago

                Schrödingers patient. They would gladly give all their data to for profit businesses to then sell an expensive cure when not asked, but they would not be willing to give consent when asked…

                Especially in the case of medical data it is relatively easy to break anonymization. If you make the data sellable the first to buy will be insurance companies so that they can begin pushing for coverage to not be universal, but rather based on how healthy you are and maybe even denying coverage for your lung cancer at 60 because you used to smoke in your 20s…

                And the people who have the kind of diseases that would benefit greatly from research on it, will be first to be hung to dry in such a system.

    • Tryenjer@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      We should have democratic mechanisms to vote these politicians out of office when they start messing up.

  • Meldrik@lemmy.wtf
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    24 hours ago

    If they can make GDPR more simple easier to comply with, it would do wonders.

    • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
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      19 hours ago

      The only part of GDPR that requires any effort is the ability to export and delete user data, which is good design in software any way.

      Most companies breaking GDPR go out of their way to break it

    • federal reverse@feddit.orgM
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      22 hours ago

      One thing that’s symptomatic for anti-GDPR sentiment in general are “cookie banner” discussions. As if the EU had ever told anyone they need cookie banners! You absolutely don’t need them if you’re not randomly throwing around data. And people should know better, just from seeing titles on said cookie banners like “Your privacy is important to us and our 1234 partners” (and that’s not even exaggerated!). In addition, “cookie banner” is a misnomer too, as the thing you’re really setting up is not cookie behavior but data-spreading behavior.

      • federal reverse@feddit.orgM
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        21 hours ago

        As an addendum: At a former employer, we ran an online survey which we announced through a small notification on the page. I didn’t want it to be too annoying, so included a “go away” button in the notification. That button wrote an extremely GDPR-compliant cookie that simply stored the preference. One of my co-workers was careless enough to casually mention this to a high-ranking American employee who then questioned me whether we shouldn’t include that cookie on the cookie banner, etc. It took a while to set that straight.

        That American was the same person who was responsible for combining browsing behavior on employer’s website with a third-party chat provider, so either AI or human agents could open a chat box on specific people’s screens and ask them creepily specific questions about whether they’d like to buy any of the products they’d been looking at on former employer’s site over the past months.

        There are a lot of people who don’t even understand the basics of what GDPR is trying to do but whose job it is, to create GDPR-compliant things.

    • trollercoaster@sh.itjust.works
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      21 hours ago

      Actually, it’s quite easy to comply with. Don’t collect any data you don’t need in order to conduct legitimate business with the person you’re collecting data from. Delete collected data once you don’t need them anymore. And you’re done.

      • DreasNil@feddit.nu
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        9 minutes ago

        Maybe in your field? Tell that to healthcare workers. Don’t you want your doctor to know about your medical history and what medications you’re taking, without having to wait and see you first to be able to ask you? GDPR HAS to be revised.

        • trollercoaster@sh.itjust.works
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          2 minutes ago

          There is a legitimate reason for the doctor accessing those data, so there isn’t a problem with the GDPR. No need to revise it for that.

    • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      I‘m afraid they‘re aiming to erase privacy instead, but I have hope I might be wrong.

    • Steven@lemmy.studio
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      23 hours ago

      Its not that complex in practice. The problem is that there it’s industry is trying to make it seem more complicated than it is so you’ll have to hire one of those contractors.

      Seems to me like the EU wants to pander to the USA to get market access. Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta are licking their lips.

  • nasteva@jlai.lu
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    22 hours ago

    My first reaction was disdain, but I think we at least need to wait for the actual proposal to form an opinion.