Angela Merkel Tells US Firms To Meet German Privacy Rules 153
judgecorp writes "Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has given her backing to proposed European privacy regulations and demanded that U.S. firms should meet German privacy rules. Merkel's stance comes as U.S. firms lobby against strict E.U. privacy proposals — but also follows revelations from Edward Snowden through German newspaper Der Spiegel, that the German authorities are helping the NSA spy on German citizens."
Now THIS is funny! (Score:4, Insightful)
The same government that brought us the "Bundestrojaner" (a trojan to be employed by law enforcement), that did pretty much anything to create Stasi 2.0 is now complaining about someone else doing it to them.
Mrs. Merkel, meet Mr. Kettle.
Re:About Time (Score:4, Insightful)
It's only fair (Score:1, Insightful)
If American laws apply in the EU, then EU laws should apply in the US.
Re:About Time (Score:3, Insightful)
I'll take a leader who leads people places they want to go over leaders that go wherever the hell they want any day of the week.
Re:About Time (Score:5, Insightful)
This is Merkel. She's the epitome of leading from the back. First, she checks where the masses are running, then she overtakes them, puts herself on the front of the movement and screams "follow me!"
So by definition it takes her a while to find out where everyone is running, she really doesn't want to start early and follow... erh, lead an agenda that doesn't have enough voters behind it.
This is basically what democracy should be about: doing what the people want.
You have it backwards, IMO.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Says you. .by at least one person [politico.com]
Not everyone agrees with you.
His name has been put up for the Nobel Peace Prize as of today,
As a US citizen, I applaud him, and think the traitors and criminals are holding gov't. offices.
Re:About Time (Score:4, Insightful)
Nope, that is actually the definition of opportunistic behaviour. In a democracy, in theory we transfer power to people we have elected for certain goals and values. If I wanted a flag hanging in the wind, parties would become obsolete.
Re:This is only possible at the moment (Score:5, Insightful)
Bullshit.
Multinational corporations will always have a presence in Europe. Google maintains several offices throughout Germany. If you want to do business in a country on the scale the giants do, you need a local subsidary.
I see this again and again and again in every stupid fucking article about some European country not bowing down to US corporate interests. It's always the same moronic argument that basically boils down to "we powerful US corporations can do what we want, if Europe doesn't like it, we can pull out of there and then they'll be sorry".
The real world disagrees. Google pulling out of Europe would mean a bit of an inconvenience for Europe, and a dramatically damaged Google. I would go so far and claim that it's a move that could potentially destroy them. Or any other Internet giant.
What would happen to Europe if we lost Google, or Facebook? There'd be a lot of whining, and someone would step up to fill the gap before you can finish writing your blog post about the whining I mentioned, and after a short while, Googles or Facebooks would have powerful competition with a strong base in Europe and pressing on them in their other markets.
Seriously, idiots on /. are the only people seriously suggesting such a suicide move. The real players would rather pump a few millions into lobby work.