News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Silicon Valley is terrified of California’s privacy law by dangus on Thursday September 19, 2019 @04:03PM (#21020127)
On the flip side, the downsides of regulations don’t outweigh their utility.

We don’t scrap seatbelt and airbag regulations just because they’ve had some unintended side effects.

Regulations aren’t set in stone forever, either, and a functional legislative body can always modify and update them as their effects become more well known.

Or, well, maybe I sound too idealistic. But...I think most of us can all agree that consumer data protections are highly lacking.

Re:Silicon Valley is terrified of California’s privacy law by lacampbell on Thursday September 19, 2019 @04:25PM (#21020366)
The US scrapped alcohol prohibition due to its unintended side effects, and is increasingly scrapping marijuana prohibitions.

Often the downsides do outweigh their utility.

Re:Silicon Valley is terrified of California’s privacy law by paulmd on Thursday September 19, 2019 @04:28PM (#21020397)
"Someone passed a bad law once, therefore all laws are bad."

Guess we don't need food safety laws anymore, prohibition was bad!

Surely you can understand the difference between prohibition and consumer-protection laws? They aren't even like, the same field of laws.

Re:Silicon Valley is terrified of California’s privacy law by pitaj on Thursday September 19, 2019 @04:44PM (#21020558)
No, the point is that it's important to address and control for all of the consequences of policy - including the unintended ones.
Re:Silicon Valley is terrified of California’s privacy law by paulmd on Thursday September 19, 2019 @04:47PM (#21020586)
Sure, but then you need to demonstrate real (not just imagined) harm. GDPR doesn't seem to have caused the world to end. Vanishingly few people actually followed through on the whining and quit serving the EU.

From the perspective of ordinary users, GDPR was a pretty successful law with no real downsides. Businesses have to be more careful with data, that's about it.

Re:Silicon Valley is terrified of California’s privacy law by lacampbell on Thursday September 19, 2019 @06:02PM (#21021160)
In regards to the GDPR, I imagine most people continue to ignore the laws of jurisdictions they have no presence in. If they have an EU presence they will follow EU laws, same as if they had a presence in China or North Korea.
Re:Silicon Valley is terrified of California’s privacy law by lacampbell on Thursday September 19, 2019 @05:53PM (#21021097)
Odd way to paraphrase my argument.
Re:Silicon Valley is terrified of California’s privacy law by ashelmire on Thursday September 19, 2019 @04:47PM (#21020590)
Did you miss the part where the individual you responded to said "Regulations aren’t set in stone forever, either, and a functional legislative body can always modify and update them as their effects become more well known."?

There is over regulation in some areas, but lets be real: it's already extremely difficult to break into existing sectors, just as a result of industrialization, brand recognition, etc. The idea of the scrappy upstart is overwhelmingly a fantasy. This regulation won't prevent any businesses worth forming from getting underway, in my opinion.

Re:Silicon Valley is terrified of California’s privacy law by jhayward on Thursday September 19, 2019 @07:45PM (#21021885)
> Often the downsides do outweigh their utility.

More like, "almost never do the down sides outweigh their utility, because they aren't designed by idiots".

Re:Silicon Valley is terrified of California’s privacy law by Jach on Thursday September 19, 2019 @04:19PM (#21020301)
I live in Washington and this is the last year I'll have to do emissions testing for my vehicle registration. I'm still kind of amazed (my default is pessimism) that this was put into motion in 2005 and nothing seems to be in the way of stopping the removal of the requirement next year: https://ecology.wa.gov/Air-Climate/Air-quality/Vehicle-emiss...

My only point is to support your case that it's not always idealistic to believe that some regulations, even ones that have been in place for decades, even with today's questionably functional government, can go away.

Re:Silicon Valley is terrified of California’s privacy law by evilantnie on Thursday September 19, 2019 @04:28PM (#21020393)
I was also surprised by this when I first saw it, but if you read the reasoning behind the ending of the program, it kind of makes sense. It sounds like they are just switching their focus.

The emissions check program is aimed at carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and particulate pollution. Properly functioning emissions systems ensure a vehicle operates efficiently, but the effect on a car or truck's overall greenhouse gas emissions is fairly small - and it is greenhouse gases (primarily carbon dioxide) that are driving climate change.

Vehicles are still the largest source of carbon pollution in Washington. We are working to change that by making sure new cars are more efficient than old ones, supporting zero-emission vehicles and cleaner fuels, and advancing transit, ridesharing and other alternatives to single occupancy vehicles.

we expect air quality to continue to improve as older vehicles are replaced with newer, cleaner cars. Ecology will continue to monitor air quality conditions throughout Washington. If we see any reasons for concern, we will certainly take action.

Re:Silicon Valley is terrified of California’s privacy law by briandear on Friday September 20, 2019 @03:29AM (#21024058)
Carbon isn’t pollution. Particulates and smog are. This is ridiculous that they end testing for pollution that can actually kill people in favor of focusing on CO2 which is necessary for life on earth to survive.
Re:Silicon Valley is terrified of California’s privacy law by 19ylram49 on Thursday September 19, 2019 @06:50PM (#21021542)
> But...I think most of us can all agree that consumer data protections are highly lacking.

Yup. Especially here in the U.S.

Re:Silicon Valley is terrified of California’s privacy law by pitaj on Thursday September 19, 2019 @04:42PM (#21020548)
> On the flip side, the downsides of regulations don’t outweigh their utility.

Often times, they do. Often regulations don't even achieve their own goals. Sometimes they even result in the opposite.

Re:Silicon Valley is terrified of California’s privacy law by jhayward on Thursday September 19, 2019 @07:48PM (#21021901)
Please show your work. I see lots of very successful regulation, and very few examples of regulation we'd be better without.