HN is not a monolith, many of us have become extremely sceptical of the tech world and “culture” in recent years despite being part of it.

So you're saying that the more people disagree with you, the more entrenched you become in your position?

That doesn't sound like a healthy way to form opinions.

The more people I see who disagree with me on this topic, the more I'm concerned about the future of tech world.

It's not like I like red color and you like blue and we disagree. We're talking about a fundamental regulation hurting innovation here. Sure, big tech shouldn't track our every move and they should reasonably protect our data, yet we're the ones giving our data (which we don't have to) in the first place and the way GDPR is currently implemented like fining ridiculous amounts for ridiculous made up reasons, or forcing a ridiculous amount of cookie accept boxes virtually on every website on Earth is not the way to go.

> We're talking about a fundamental regulation hurting innovation here.

Which innovation is being hurt by this?

> yet we're the ones giving our data (which we don't have to)

In practice, there's not much of a choice between "give up your data" and "don't participate in society". It makes sense to use regulation to fix that.

> forcing a ridiculous amount of cookie accept boxes virtually on every website on Earth is not the way to go.

The GDPR provides a great way to avoid consent boxes: stop tracking your users!

In the EU we have institutions set up to protect the citizen, deal with it.

No, there aren't that many lobbyists, just average Europeans that finished their cup of Flavor-Aid.

Pretty sure that's not sold in Europe

It wasn't sold near Jonestown either

> against its own culture

Could you elaborate what that culture is supposed to be exactly, and why it should require us to side with Discord here?

Freedom and innovation, not rules and regulations.

Freedom for me, but not for thee. These rules and regulations are the result of not respecting users' freedoms.

Certain kinds of "innovations", from bioweapons to pushing teenagers towards suicide for profit, should be banned.

30 years on the Internet and I am still waiting to see the huuuuuge damage I get from companies tracking me online. Because targeted ads I didn't mind.

But you had to equate them with bioweapons and teen suicide. Do you really find them comparable? How?!

Meanwhile millions of man-hours are wasted across the EU hunting and closing annoying cookie consent dialogs. Small ad-supported business who existed since the beginning of the internet now don't. And we don't even know what we are missing.

Because this is how regulations damage the world: they embrace a (supposed) benefit but nobody compares it with the price paid. Opportunities missed. And what should be in the end a personal decision is stolen from us in an overpowering decision made in our names and "for our own good".

Um remember PRISM? Or the cloud act? I seriously don't understand how you can get so outraged at countries trying to hamper a foreign government from mass spying at their population. That sounds like

Also,i fail to see your point: small ad-supported businesses in the beginning of the internet did not rely on tracking and targeted ads, did they?

I do not trust a government to protect me against spying by another. I trust the EU less than the USA - it's deeply infiltrated by Russian influence. I trust my own government the least: it is completely corrupted and only interested to rob and destroy me.

Probably means moralless pursuit of the almighty dollar. There seems to be a sizable chunk of hustlers on HN, who have some tiny dropshipping, newsletter or spam business that depends on invasive tracking, dark patterns and other amoral behavior, and they get scared and feel existentially threatened every time GDPR is brought up. It seems to be the same group of people who believe that the Internet would die without advertising, as if the whole Internet consisted of SEO spam only.

I hate all the things you've listed as much as you do, and never did any of them.

Stay delusional.

The point of GDPR is to defend the user.

Tech companies aren't your friends, they only want your money. What baffles me is people being outraged by this fine like they needed to pay that, not a billion dollar tech company.

It is justified because what Discord didn't implement can harm the user. it can harm YOU.

People easily forget that Internet is for everyone. Even for people that didn't grew with a computer, even for people that are not developer.

Governments aren't your friends either

At least the government is supposed to protect its citizens from harm and not act for its own interest, but yeah, debatable nowadays

The real point of GDPR is to protect European businesses through selective enforcement, protecting users is not where the money lies.

As an Australian, I'm the victim of a data breach pretty much every month these days. So yes, I support government intervention that makes it dangerous to keep my information for longer than necessary, because it sure doesn't feel like these companies are going to clean up their act on their own.

Believe it or not, I'm not a lobbyist.