Five EU Countries Taken To Court For Failing To Implement Cookie Law 130
concertina226 writes "The European Commission announced on Thursday that it has asked the European Court of Justice to impose fines on Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia for not transposing binding telecoms rules into their national laws. The official deadline for doing so was 25 May last year. These telecoms rules are aimed at protecting users' privacy online. They also require companies to notify users about any data breach without undue delay and to allow customers to switch fixed or mobile phone operators without changing their phone number, within one working day. But the main sticking point in the telecoms package appears to be the requirement for Web companies to obtain 'explicit consent' from Internet users before storing cookies."
Re:leave the EU (Score:5, Interesting)
Err...
1. Session cookies are key in allowing Google to track and store more data than it should.
2. In France at least, the EC expressed concerns about the French government storing too much, not too little. So, not sure where you get the idea of the EU promoting police states.
3. Historically, the EU has always progressed in times of crisis. The US got federalism more or less right two centuries ago. We'll get it more or less right soon enough.
4. Unless the Euro breaks up (which I think is unlikely), rebalancing will likely occur through fiscal union, pan-EU projects (à la Ariane or Airbus), and increased (some already exist) subsidies from more competitive regions to less competitive ones.
5. Actually, Iceland recently made news because it was at the EU's door, almost begging to enter, and rather eager to adopt the Euro. The part they got right, which neither you nor we did, is to lock up their bankers in jail after clawing their wages back. (And I'm confident we'll get it right too, eventually.)
Re:leave the EU (Score:3, Interesting)
1. Session cookies are key in allowing Google to track and store more data than it should.
Err, no, that would be persistent cookies. Session cookies are deleted whenever the browser session ends, so it makes tracking rather pointless. The cookies Google (and every other company) uses to track are set to expire years in the future.
So you always open your browser for only one site and close it afterwards? And never look at two sites at the same time?
If you like it or not, the problem with cookies is something that can only be solved by law.
There are some sites only working with cookies (mostly for stupid reasons), so you cannot disable cookies globally.
Almost any site with advertising gives you a tracking cookie, per advertisement, so no browser will ask people to accept cookies by default as people will be utterly confused. And because any browser accepts them by default, sites can just add tracking cookies without many people complaining. So no browser can switch to "ask-before-request" as too many sites use them....
So you either have to accept that any site will track what other sites you visit and give the advertisers your profile
(and once one of thoe sites also has your login, connect that profile to your identify), or you have to use regulation.
One might differ whether people have a right on privacy or websites have a right to get revenues. But if one considers a right for privacy, regulation is the only solution in this case.
Re:leave the EU (Score:4, Interesting)
Why is this modded troll? You'd have to be blind solely blame Greece in this debacle and it's quite obvious who has benefited from the Greek crisis.
Re:leave the EU (Score:5, Interesting)
- My ex's family were from Greece. Business there was as business in any Southern European country: stronger sense of family and community, so local businesses which were perceived as ethical would thrive, whereas people in it for a quick buck would be viewed with suspicion and would have regulations more stringently applied. Health&Safety in Britain is much more intrusive than there.
Wow, I didn't expect it but (not kidding) you've seriously opened my eyes.
Ignoring for the moment the rather unfortunate comparison you did to China (do you even realize the argument you made there???), when considering the situation in southern europe I at least _assumed_ that the population in general was conscious of the reasons why they were uncompetitive and just acted out of self-interest.
That the family and community business thing you described above is seen as a good thing makes clear that they got no fucking clue. I can hardly think of a way to structure a business environment that would lead to more corruption than that. When your neighbor or cousine's business is threatened by a more competitive smartass from out-of-town, the 'family and community' oriented society would see it as normal to put in any and all obstacles possible.
Fuck that, I guess Greece really is destined to leave the Euro. (And having left a sour taste in the mouth of leaders up north from all those protests and threats to the Euro stability in order to 'renegotiate', etc, reconstruction 'aid' won't be very forthcoming)
Re:leave the EU (Score:4, Interesting)
Why not draw a parallel to the current American housing crisis? Homeowners should have known better; banks knew they didn't know better, and took advantage of them. The government helped. Everyone is wrong except for those who didn't involve themselves.