Well, who do you folks think should be fined next?<p>Also, can't we just agree that "Legitimate interest" is noncompliance and fine BBC too while at it?
I use this addon to hide the opt-ins: <a href="https://www.i-dont-care-about-cookies.eu/" rel="nofollow">https://www.i-dont-care-about-cookies.eu/</a><p>>In most cases, it just blocks or hides cookie related pop-ups. When it's needed for the website to work properly, it will automatically accept the cookie policy for you (sometimes it will accept all and sometimes only necessary cookie categories, depending on what's easier to do). It doesn't delete cookies.
If you're surprised there haven't been many big fines against large tech companies yet, that may be because there's a large backlog of cases that are bottlenecked by the budget of Ireland's DPA: <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/data-protection/news/european-parliament-calls-for-infringement-procedure-against-ireland/" rel="nofollow">https://www.euractiv.com/section/data-protection/news/europe...</a>
The biggest fine was on us users, forced to hunt cookie options in obnoxious pop ups interrupting us from whatever we were doing.<p>It’s a fine paid in time and focus by billions of people and its cost is probably staggering.
It remains somewhat, ah, interesting that the biggest GDPR fine is for not being able to withstand a targeted attack by a motivated attacker. The British Airways compromise seems to have involved someone getting access to their systems (which basically just requires one employee screwing up, once) and hiding malicious code in their website so custom-tailored to them that an uninvolved outside expert in the malware family involved had trouble ientifying where it was <i>after</i> he knew it was there due to the news coverage. That's the kind of "gross negligence" that leads to a record fine and I don't think IT security as it currently stands is even remotely capable of preventing it.
1) Subscribe via email!<p>2) Accept our cookies and let us track you! (with a delay for choosing anything that's not accept all)<p>3) Surprise! There might be a paywall whether subscribed via email or not! Schrodinger's paywall<p>4) Oh hey! I saw you paused scrolling or moved your mouse in the general direction of the back button, check out this other thing!<p>5) Okay lol, here's the article. Maybe. Depending on the deal we cut with the creators of your specific browser and geographic location and how many other articles you've read this month.<p>and thats <i>with</i> adblock<p>Europe and California, we are counting on you to fix the internet!
I'd be curious of a detailed analysis of the cost of GDPR to EU consumers. There are websites that shut down or no longer servicing European customers because of the concerns around GDPR.
Some will say "I told you so, they still do not get fined harshly enough to make any difference" while others will say "this is just unfair money grabbing governments" and while everyone argues back and forth with the same arguments as the last ten discussions I sit here on the sidelines, a normal internet user, who by the simple mentioning of GDPR have gotten big companies, like Epic, and powerful people, like a CEO of a pretty big company, to actually <i>do</i> something where they before would totally have ignored me. GDPR is not perfect at all but it does do a heck of a difference already.<p><i>Edit: Downvotes, really? :/</i>