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‘What the f*ck did you do?!’ Video contradicts DHS claims about killing of Alex Pretti
(www.commondreams.org)
this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2026
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politics
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Awfully high horse you are on up there. Why don't you get down to reality that privacy protections in GDPR are just a lip service in a world ran by big tech.
Corporations rule and pretending laws are protecting you while they have control is rather ridiculous.
The maximum punishment for GDPR breach is 4% of the companys world wide renevue. I dont know if you understand business but that 4% is shit ton. Its not 4% of gross profit, its from revevue, its 4% of the all the money the that has gone trough the company. So tech bros are taking it seriously. I mean what they are going to do? Start to follow the quidelines or risk losing all the profits they are gettin from worlds second biggest market?
Meta is currently in court for €1,2 billion and so far it does not look like they are getting away from it. Google has also €2,95 billion fine on the table. Lets shelf this conversation and see if they pay up and if they start to follow the law.
What really is ridiculous is bitching about different continents laws while (im guessing you are from states) your own country is spreading its cheecks and asking the big tech to come in.
Oh please, the entire law creates an undue burden on smaller firms while the larger ones skirt the rules. This continues to benefit big tech (and big business) and until Europe pushes them out completely everything you say is nonsense. If GDPR actually changes how these big companies steal and use data I will gladly eat my hat.
Undue burden of what? Keeping their data in order? Ooh the terror?!
By happenstance i was working in one of those smaller businesses when the law first came to be and i was one of the dudes whose job was to make sure we followed the new regulations and it was hardly an ordeal. Now years later the amount of the time i spent monthly doing work with GDPR requests is so negligible, it really did not matter workload wise if the law even was there.
Is it really so hard to imagine things might work differently in somewhere else?
Uh. Hope you like the taste if your hat. The whole marketing indrustry in EU, from online adds to telemarketing has fundamentally changed the way they can and will advertise to, or contact their customers or potential customers.
Data breach notifications have been getting much better. GTPR demands that after finding the breach company has 72 hours time to notify customers effected, if later time there are any proof company has tried to cover databreach they get hit by the fines. By 2025 there had already been over 281 000 data breach notifications. Including notifications from big companies like Google, meta and amazon. Before GDPR those companies had no need to report any of those.
Fortune 500 companies have spended over €7.8 billion to comply with the law. Do you think none of that money has made any changes how they do busines?
But you are right. Its not perfect and big companies keep lobbying against it and there are new hurdles like AI that still needs to be figured out. But saying it has amounted to nothing or trying to belittle its effects is just playing in to the hand of those tech companies.
If it does not work, why would other countries and states like California bother to make their own similiar legistlations?
Compliance costs which you admit to. You can't fathom that this legislation benefited big business because you don't understand what is really going on. That is okay.
Believing any policy passed is not favoring big business is willfully ignoring reality at this point. As I stated, until these privacy violating megacorps are removed there is no privacy. The governments are complicit in this information grab as well.
Frankly, this law may have been a good start. So far I am not impressed.
Wow. It must be really bleak in your world. I mean seeing real facts about something and being just able to shrug it off, just because "megacorps".
Do you have any numbers or real arguments, or are you just in somekind of denial, that because things there are bad they must be so elsewhere too?
Digital Markets Act Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive REACH Regulation
There are few other legistlations other than GDPR that also make big companies to take respinsibility. If any if these are made favoring big business, why those businesses would spend millions yearly lobbying against them?
Real facts that 90%+ of all policy written in your country is at the request of corporations?
That the majority of all messaging goes through Whatsapp?
I mean you are so cooked and at the same time in denial it isn't funny. Every major power's spy program is wholesale buying information hoovered up Meta and there is no legislation to stop it.
You think you can control big tech but they have already corrupted your governments. They are complicit trading your rights for the convenience of spying on everyone.
So when I say get off your high horse pretending you have some rights and your government is stopping this I mean it. Stop pretending.
I think only real fact from your end has been that most things have been 100% pulled from your ass.
Signal has been most downloaded message app for few months now, hitting the most downloaded communications app in most north european countries and having 220 million downloads world wide. Granted the change is slow and whatsup still the most used app, but numbers now are way different than year ago.
If the big tech is so far in our legastlation, why they keep getting their asses handed over when they try to touch workers rights.
And why they keep getting fined over the backdoors and security breaks all the time?
And also in my country we have all the important goverment cloud data in servers in country and less critical data are in europe. (Granted the devices are most likelly ciscos, but the network is heavily monitored and there are no way to siphon data from there without getting caught)
Maybe you should stop pretending that nothing can be done. I mean its easier to just give up and try to act like nothing can be done, but that is the way you end up with goverment putting people in concentration camps and having untrained thugs shooting civilians in a name of law.
Everything I have said is true, you are just fucking clueless. This is why big tech won. You didn't even fucking know and when someone tells you deny it like an idiot.
You think your nation won against big tech, boy you showed them. Hitting them in their pocket book. With fines amounting to less than 1% of their total revenue in one year. You are playing security theatre in your head.
Go give Meta more of your personal information so they can share it with your government like a good Eurodumbass.
Why you are suddenly so angry? Is it your default answer when somebody dont belive your bullshit?
Im fairly certain i have better understandment how the world works than some child who gets mad on the internet, cant provide any tangible evidence to back their talks and who does not understand how big deal 1% of worldwide revenue is for company of any size. You do understand revenue does not mean how much money the company has earned? A business's revenue is its gross income before subtracting any expenses.
Everything in these comments of yours just screams that, what ever rung you are in your social situation, by the time any nugget of information reaches you, it has already been digested and molded by hundreds of people in to a form that fits your worldview.
But im not delutional either. I see how big companies lobby againt user rights all the time and i think its especially dangerous that some of the support from american companies goes straight to extreme far-right parties. But i also see how Musk is getting his asshanded to him with tesla sales in EU. And im not sure if this is third or fourth time is say this. IF THE BIG TECH COMPANIES HAVE SUCH A STRONG HOLD ON EUROPEAN GOVERMENTS, WHY THEY ARE CONSTANTLY FIGHTING AND LOBBYING AGAINST THEM? If EU would be in their pocket they would not need to do that.
Also just for your "americunt" ass to know. I have done GDPR information removal request for my facebook account years ago, i dont use whatsapp, and i specifically bought a phone without google and meta bloatware, so maybe you should just go outside and watch how minorities get trambled or what ever it is thats is happening over there.
Go do a favor for yourself and find a new news outlet or two, that you usually dont read and broaden your horizon a little. Maybe you should think for a moment if have been just gobbling propaganda that has been manufactured for you and now parrot everything as a truth.
Why are you so ignorant? Is your default always to pretend you know something that apparently you know nothing about. The European Union kowtowing to big tech because it benefits them is the facts. You pretend they are regulating them and I am just pointing out the obvious that they really aren't.
I am fairly certain you don't know shit. Please spare me your garbage pretending 1% of their budget for one year is some big bad penalty and not just an extremely minor cost of doing business.
You provide no evidence to refute anything I have said because I am fucking right and you are just acting like a little bitch boot licker at this point.
You are so fucking delusional it isn't funny. You think you know but you have not even scratched the surface of what is going on. You denying that the big tech companies have a stranglehold on Europe is hilarious. Show me the proof that Europe has moved away from big tech or even put their foot down.
I mean at this point you are fucking goose stepping towards complete corporate rule (actually you are already there). Europe never had a chance apparently and you think GDPR is going to save you from the dystopia you haven't even realized you are living in. It wasn't a bad idea, but it was just the start of what was needed.
Instead of continuing this crusade we get fucking chat control. So pardon me if I am disappointed for you since you don't have enough sense to be disappointed yourself.
I am so glad you care about your digital footprint, now if you can convince everyone else to do the same perhaps there is some hope left.
Oh lordy you telling me about gobbling up propaganda. Please point out a news outlet besides maybe Techdirt that even approaches what I am saying. The truth is you are the one eating propaganda and puking it all over Lemmy.
Another long raving with zero substance or no serious arguments?
You not being able to tell difference between revenue, budget and profit really shows how "educated" you are and how "deep" your understanding of world of business is.
But as a fully honest and by no means maleficient advice. Reading news and opinions from different angles than your own is never a bad thing. I engourage you to read some articles from other countries. Most bigger news sites have some if their articles translated to english too.
I am glad you have conceded to all my points as you have been unable to refute them. These points are (since your reading comprehension is about zero).
Europe governments benefits from big tech surveillance so they are not keen on regulating them in any real way. There is a huge difference between what the people want and what the government wants. While Europe has made some minor strides in increasing the power of the state over corporations they have done almost nothing to increase the power of the people. This is, of course, by design.
The meager fines they have placed on big tech are next to nothing, have not even been enforced, will be litigated for the next decade, and most importantly not changing their behavior as they are still breaking the law. With gems like, "Research indicates that 90% of Data Subject Access Requests (DSAR) are not fully respected by companies".
The actual regulations they have passed have benefitted big business because they are the ones with the capital to be able to follow the law which costs a lot in compliance. Furthermore they have the lawyers and ability to fight the fines indefinitely. Too little too late doesn't even begin to cover the reality we are facing.
You not being able to actually have a conversation about this and instead being in complete denial is the reality here. When you are ready to have a real conversation about Europe getting bent over by big tech I am ready. I won't hold my breath though because you sure like your high horses
I actually hope you are right and Europe does smack down big tech, reduces corporate influence, and develops its own tech sovereignty. Unfortunately, I know they are actually addicted to spying on their citizens and big tech gives them exactly what they need. Even if they replace them (the only way forward) they will likely just build a similar system themselves.
Here are a few articles I read today. Have fun trying to read your local news. I am sure they will offer tons of insight about this issue.
https://edri.org/our-work/move-fast-and-break-big-techs-power/
https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2025/06/rethinking-eu-digital-policies-from-tech-sovereignty-to-tech-citizenship?lang=en