Data Protection Commission fines Google €403M over processing of location data

Re:Data Protection Commission fines Google €403M over proces... by fintechjock on Monday September 21, 2026 @07:58PM (#49795051)

The EU seems to live in a world all on its own. They can’t fine enough to actually change the behavior of big companies, but they can fine enough to kill their own startup culture.

I don’t feel bad for them anymore. Their voters seem to be fine with this status quo. And I get why other countries see these fines as trying to raise taxes by other means because it hasn’t and won’t change anything.

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Re:Data Protection Commission fines Google €403M over proces... by autoexec on Monday September 21, 2026 @08:05PM (#49795104)

> They can’t fine enough to actually change the behavior of big companies

Of course they can fine enough. They just don't, which is why you see companies get fined again and again profiting from each violation.

The real issue is that fines are hard to set against companies with more money than they could ever need. What we need is for more CEOs to go to prison, but that's hard to do when the company's CEO is a citizen of another country.

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Re:Data Protection Commission fines Google €403M over proces... by chrisjj on Monday September 21, 2026 @08:16PM (#49795204)

[delayed]

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Re:Data Protection Commission fines Google €403M over proces... by sam345 on Monday September 21, 2026 @08:03PM (#49795094)

Exactly

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Re:Data Protection Commission fines Google €403M over proces... by bertmuir on Monday September 21, 2026 @08:48PM (#49795454)

Can you think of even 10 notable cases of startups being killed by fines? Let alone the 1,000+ you would need to identify to justify the claim.

I can't think of a single one. It barely registers as a risk.

Although I can think of several US startups that bankrupted themselves with fines for fraud etc....

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Re:Data Protection Commission fines Google €403M over proces... by fintechjock on Monday September 21, 2026 @10:04PM (#49795954)

The startup culture is what is killed by fines. It’s not possible to count how many companies are not started because of over regulation

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Re:Data Protection Commission fines Google €403M over proces... by xethos on Tuesday September 22, 2026 @01:17AM (#49797053)

The very same startup culture of "Screw the law, we could make a lot of money" hasn't exactly endeared me to it

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