Just ban Facebook.
Problem solved.
The offshoot would be that millions of hours are suddenly gained in Industry.
do the same for Twitter etc and suddenly the UK's productivity is not behind the Frogs.
{just leave access to this site alone ok}
The EU’s Justice Commissioner met her US counterparts last week in an effort to break the stalemate over data protection rights. Věra Jourová and US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker met to discuss the revision of the so-called Safe Harbour agreement, a legally enforceable but voluntary code of conduct for US businesses that …
"Why was the Joke Icon necessary, the comment actually seems quite valid."
Oh really? So, who is going to ban it? The government? You like the idea of a censored web wherein the facilities you want to use may or may not be banned by an unaccountable power? Heaven forfend it removes something you might want to use like say, Encryption or IRC.
No, the commentard just wants to ban things that other people like that he doesn't, which is surely a joke because no one is that stupid, surely?
Ac,
I am typing this r e a l l y s l o w l y f o r y o u.
Re the 'ban it' bit, it could just be banned by the folk that are paying other folk, to do you know...
WORK.
I.e. if you want use faecesbook on your own time, that is just fine, you do not have an automatic right to use an employers pc, leccy and interwebs...!
Have a nice day!
Regards,
Jay
I will reply R E A L LY S L O W L Y too then.
The original commentard suggested that Facebook et. al. be banned nationally. How do I know that? he said "The UK would gain massive productivity", not "companies would gain". Also, the article talks about EU wide legislation, not an individual company.
I have no issue with an employer suspending access to twitter and facebook, only an issue with the idea that they should be banned wholesale because some people don't like them (for "people" see "Techie Hipster"). Personally, I'd like to see sport banned from television, especially as Virgin have just handed me the good news that my bill has risen so I can watch more of something called "cricket". The amount of hours of lost productivity with people talking about how much harder their team has sported than the other team must be near equal to those lost on FB.
You have a nice day too.
Regards,
Me.
My company mandates that we don't take confidential information to the US.. as they have decided to get a duplicate of several laptops HDDs... and force the employees to reveal the passwords "or else".
Of course, this is "old industrial espionage", just for the benefic of US defence companies.. but we have to endure this.
If they do this openly, just imagine what they do with your US hosted data.
Anon, as I would like to enter the US without problems.
> If they do this openly, just imagine what they do with your US hosted data.
Actually customs officers in many countries can demand passwords; they have very strong powers. I'd say that this is a risk that most companies have learned to accept (or else issue special sanitised laptops for international travel). And data hosted in another country (not just the US) is subject to whatever that country's intelligence services are allowed to do. That's an intrinsic risk of cloud computing, and it's short-sighted to only point at the US risks. There are numerous countries that require equipment vendors to provide back doors.
Is there evidence that NSA has greater access to data resident in the US than that resident elsewhere? The procedures used would differ somewhat, but access to foreign data stored in the US may require legal process that may not be needed to access it in some other locations where NSA has the authority under US law to obtain it directly without troubling to make a request.
Obviously trying to get the agreement signed before the ECJ rules (and basically says you can't have an agreement) - sounds like 'Quick! Change the rules before the cops get here and we'll get away with it.' Why the panic? Why is it necessary to try to circumvent justice? What's really going on?
As a citizen, who's life is controlled by these unelected people, my adjective for the day is "scary".
Considering the noises made my US Govt. and companies, it does make me wonder why they don't want to meet the higher EU standards on data protection.
They claim that personal data is important and "won't be mis-used" blah, blah, blah but the reality is that the US Govt. is frightened of their own industry lobbyists, ie they've been "bought" by promises of "campaign contributions" and a cushy job next time the lose an election.
Anyway, they are easily frightened into doing as their told. Just mention "liberal" or "socialist" and they start to quiver.
There's one thing in that sentence that does not go with other.
Kind of like saying stopping at a red light is voluntary, yet legally enforceable.
It's either legally enforceable, or it is voluntary. Can't be both.
Unless, of course, it is like the "volontaire désigné d'office*", the old joke in the French army.
*translates into the designated volunteer
They can choose not to follow the code of conduct and can handle US (and other) personal data to their own standards, but if they want to handle EIU data then they voluntarily sign up to the code of conduct after which they are legally obliged to uphold it or get out of the EU data business. IMHO, IANAL and YMMV
Stopping at a red light is also optional but legally enforceable. You can choose not to drive :-)
The really ironic thing about the whole Shrem case is it highlights the fact that people will willingly give companies like Faecesbook their private data in return for free services without stopping to think for a second what happens to that data! The answer - stop being dumb and using marketing-driven tools like Faecesbook! If you are stupid enough to put all your secrets on Faecesbook then you really only have yourself to blame.
"the European Parliament called for it to be suspended. The commission has stopped short of doing that and instead is re-negotiating the deal."
Re-negotiating would have been much quicker (i.e. less then infinite time) if they'd suspended it in the interim.
As the saying goes, when you've got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow.