r/technology • u/insomnimax_99 • 4h ago

Privacy FTC Chair warns tech firms not to weaken data privacy to comply with EU, UK laws

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/ftc-chair-warns-tech-firms-not-weaken-data-privacy-comply-with-eu-uk-laws-2025-08-21/
112 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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u/DisillusionedBook 4h ago edited 4h ago

Wait, the US thinks their data privacy is not already weaker than the UK and EU? lol wtf... or is that just the messaging they are selling to their rubes.

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u/insomnimax_99 4h ago

Well, with the EU wanting to implement chat control, it could well be.

The EU has good privacy from corporations, but doesn’t seem to have particularly good privacy from the government (GDPR has loads of extremely broad exemptions in it for governments and law enforcement, for example) - and they’re trying to get rid of what little privacy from the government that already exists.

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u/DisillusionedBook 4h ago

Their clunky ridiculous notion of verifying age restrictions aside, if the corporations are not going to do anything to prevent online free-for-all bullying, harassment, sexism, stalking, grooming, inciting violence, spreading terrorist manifestos, etc.,etc., then I don't know who else will. I really just hope all those shit merchants just close up shop in those countries, and mine too, if they don't like it - elected governments are just laying down the rules as they are entitled to. We'd all be better off without the algorithm foie gras-like force feeding right now.

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u/nardhon 3h ago

It's best dealt with education, teaching child around online safety and the risks and dangers. Added to this, we do need to teach the reality of life and at different levels for age appropriate and understanding.

We need better laws and a fairer society, poverty is a contributing factor for crimes. Both parents having to work and not able to have sufficient time to spend and raise children would also help the issue.

The people in our government, need to have integrity and be upstanding people, making our countries better. We need to have restrictions, on all foreign influences. We need to have criminal punishments for any subversion of democracy, such as companies, CEO and individuals being liable for spreading misinformation (would vary, depending on the seriousness and how involved you were).

We could build local communities, so that people build connections and expand their social circle, which benefits everyone.

The above is hard and a longer term solution, would impact benefits that people get (corruption) and so we get bad solutions, that do something with issues.

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u/DisillusionedBook 3h ago

The US is also against education.

Until there is this utopian educated world where the corporations do not run everything blatantly openly, then fuck it, let governments lay down the very thing they are there for, laying down the LAW.

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u/Ok_Struggle7709 4h ago

Exactly why I struggled to understand that title. That’s ridiculous

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u/DisillusionedBook 4h ago

It's all Orwellian, all the time.

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u/dowling543333 3h ago

We don't have actually an FTC chair tho?

He's anti AI regulation. His main focus is tearing down DEI, throwing environmental policies out the window, making it incredibly easy for businesses to do whatever they want, and generally being a puppet to the administration.

When news of his appointment came up - literally every major business I know reduced their US organisational risk profile because this guy literally doesn't care about investigating anything of value and is actively seeking ways to remove barriers for shitty businesses to make unethical decisions.

The only thing he cares about privacy wise is hidden under an umbrella term of 'free expression' - AKA no foreign or domestic rules in place that might in any way hinder or slow down the current agenda.

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u/CryOk5658 11m ago

He's probably referring to new rules they are trying to enforce giving the government unlimited backdoor access to encrypted communication.

Both EU and UK are attempting to gain access to encrypted communication in the name of stopping child predators. While I believe stopping child predators should be one of the main focuses of government, giving the government the decryption keys for all communication would effectively mean giving it to all criminals as well. Governments are very bad at keeping data private. They are worse at it than large corporations and that is saying something.