Stalking is illegal, for obvious reasons. Online stalking is equally illegal, for equally obvious reasons.
Just because said stalking is automated, used for commercial purposes and has been renamed with cool souding euphemisms doesn't suddenly make it acceptable. Neither is the fact that it currently happens on such a large scale that it affects virtually every website.
These laws aren't crazy, they are a gradual return to sanity. The EU isn't crazy either. The directive sets the baseline for what is and what isn't allowed in principle, allows for plenty of wiggle room and the way it is actually implemented and enforced will be a gradually process.
All this over the top ranting without showing any self-reflection or attempt at self-regulation is exactly why this is now forced upon us from above in the first place. The EU and various government en consumer organisations have repeatedly called for the industry to keep itself in check.
Instead, the industry has gone completely mental under the motto "we do it because we can", and as a result we now have a commercial surveillance network that surpasses anything any totalitarian government could have ever dreamed of. And which on top of that blatantly violates already existing privacy laws.
Congrats. Well done. We've awoken the beast of government regulation, and we only have ourselves to blame. You can't keep pissing all over consumers and civil rights without it resulting in some kind of backlash.
Just because said stalking is automated, used for commercial purposes and has been renamed with cool souding euphemisms doesn't suddenly make it acceptable. Neither is the fact that it currently happens on such a large scale that it affects virtually every website.
These laws aren't crazy, they are a gradual return to sanity. The EU isn't crazy either. The directive sets the baseline for what is and what isn't allowed in principle, allows for plenty of wiggle room and the way it is actually implemented and enforced will be a gradually process.
All this over the top ranting without showing any self-reflection or attempt at self-regulation is exactly why this is now forced upon us from above in the first place. The EU and various government en consumer organisations have repeatedly called for the industry to keep itself in check.
Instead, the industry has gone completely mental under the motto "we do it because we can", and as a result we now have a commercial surveillance network that surpasses anything any totalitarian government could have ever dreamed of. And which on top of that blatantly violates already existing privacy laws.
Congrats. Well done. We've awoken the beast of government regulation, and we only have ourselves to blame. You can't keep pissing all over consumers and civil rights without it resulting in some kind of backlash.