Reply to post: Re: Where it is stored doesn't matter?

How do you solve a problem like Privacy Shield? US and EU policymakers kick off discussions

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Where it is stored doesn't matter?

"But I really, REALLY tire of Europeans acting as if they have a right to the innovations of American businesses without the application of American law. Make your own **** Google / Apple / Facebook / whatever. The companies are too **** powerful anyway, and need their wings clipped."

Not all of the "innovations" of Google, Facebook et al are their own innovations. In some case, they bought up other companies from around the world and, at least in Googles case, frequently closed them down once they had the IP. Secondly, Europeans pay for those services in exactly the same way Americans do. I.e., private users get it "free" at point of use, paying through being fed adverts and having their data scraped. Commercial users pay for what they use in the same way US commercial users do. Thirdly, there are companies offering similar services in the EU but then sheer size of the US conglomerates makes it hard to compete against them, especially when it comes to running costs as the EU companies have to pay their taxes in the EU while non-EU companies claim they aren't in the EU for tax purposes or keep shifting their "registered office". eg Google UK, despite having many, many staff and big offices claim that all the sales leads they generate are actually transacted over the Irish sea at Google Ireland HQ. That's a lot more difficult for "local" companies to do. I'm sure you see the same thing within the US where, for example, so many companies are incorporated in Delaware for tax reasons so "local" companies in other states find it harder to compete against your national companies using the protections of DE.

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