I'm not saying "law is bad". I'm saying that the process of prohibiting a behavior after it happens is too slow and ineffective for Big Tech. As it was for many other industries before, but particularly now for Big Tech.
What needs to happen is for privacy-minded tech people to propose and lobby solutions to governments that make it impossible for companies to violate these rights in the first place, and then governments making it a law for this technology to be used by all companies. E.g. the DNT header could've been one such solution, but the fact it was never made part of a law is what led to it being abused for ironically tracking itself, and now abandoned altogether.
We're in this mess because governments fundamentally don't understand technology and how to police it. Either that, or they're willfully complacent with the status quo because it benefits them as much as the corporations.
> I'm saying that the process of prohibiting a behavior after it happens is too slow and ineffective for Big Tech
Do you realize that all laws happen after something happens? Even your proposed solution of tech people coming up with something would also happen after the fact?
> What needs to happen is for privacy-minded tech people to propose and lobby solutions to governments that make it impossible for companies to violate these rights in the first place
Ah yes, the magical technical solution that is impossible to violate.
Good thing that you mentioned DNT. Do you know that DNT ended up being used for browser fingerprinting and hence tracking?
Had DNT been codified into law, you'd be complaining on HN that the law is bad and governments don't understand technology.
> Either that, or they're willfully complacent with the status quo because it benefits them as much as the corporations.
wat. GDPR is literally aimed against the status quo. I wish it was more rigorously enforced, of course.
Also, it doesn't apply just to the web. It asserts right to privacy as a fundamental right.
What needs to happen is for privacy-minded tech people to propose and lobby solutions to governments that make it impossible for companies to violate these rights in the first place, and then governments making it a law for this technology to be used by all companies. E.g. the DNT header could've been one such solution, but the fact it was never made part of a law is what led to it being abused for ironically tracking itself, and now abandoned altogether.
We're in this mess because governments fundamentally don't understand technology and how to police it. Either that, or they're willfully complacent with the status quo because it benefits them as much as the corporations.