US might get nasty at EU privacy laws


What do you mean our corporations can"t spy on users?


The US government is getting rather tetchy as the new GDPR privacy laws roll out.

Apparently the United States is deeply concerned that the new European Union privacy guidelines will change how companies do business, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said, adding that the regulation should be implemented in a way to minimize barriers to trade.


It is important to realise that when he means "barriers to trade" he means the ability of US companies to steal EU citizens data and flog it to whoever they like. He also means that US  spooks should be given the right to snuffle any EU data they like.


New European privacy regulations went into effect last Friday that will force companies to be more attentive to how they handle customer data and while the contents have been known about for a couple of years, US businesses are not happy, and have probably yanked the chain of some of their tame politicians to create a stink.


“We in the US are deeply concerned about the way the EU’s new privacy guidelines, which came into effect last week, will force big changes in the way US and European companies do business”, Ross wrote in the Financial Times.


“We must find a way to implement GDPR without creating undue barriers... EU authorities must provide clearer rules and a more predictable regulatory environment to support investment and innovation.”


While there are a few problems with GDPR, it is probably not going to stop investment and innovation – other than for those companies which depend on stealing information from the stupid on social notworking sites and flogging it to the highest bidder, or using it to game elections.

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