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Really? I'm in the UK and I've never been blocked from accessing a US-based site, even when we were in the EU.
I have. But of course the UK government wants to 'simplify' the permissions you give, so my guess is that they will diverge from the EU to allow surveillance capitalism to run rampant. Anyway, Apple looks lees and less like it is concerned about privacy.
 
The intention of most of these fines is to make a quick buck off US tech companies. I would say the US should respond in kind, but there aren't any European tech companies to fine. I wonder why...
I think ARM would disagree with you.
 
I don’t understand this. Anyone who gets an Apple device is presented with multiple screens asking the user to opt in or out of various features. So is this saying that if a user opts out of everything, Apple still collects data for commercial use?
In Europe, it has to be opt in, not opt out – Italy accuses Apple to have checked some checkboxes by default, which is not conform to law.
 
I don’t understand it either. Is any harm coming to the consumer? If not, why are they being fined? And while they’re at, why not fine every website on the internet that doesn’t let you opt out of cookies?

Because that’s what politicians do. They produce nothing of value themselves and rely on money they take from people who do.
 
But $pple is the best of friends when it comes to privacy for the whole of the world. I think something must be miscalculated on this matter.
 
I don’t understand this. Anyone who gets an Apple device is presented with multiple screens asking the user to opt in or out of various features. So is this saying that if a user opts out of everything, Apple still collects data for commercial use?

As far as I understand from the documents by the authority, they state that when a user creates a new Apple ID it comes with some options enabled by default which allow Apple to send promotional emails and collect data for commercial use.

The authority takes issue that the user is not adequately informed of these default options, they cannot be disabled completely during the Apple ID creation process and these options should not be opt-out in the first place.
 
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Maybe, probably not though. As the article states, there is no proof presented that Apple did so. However, should Apple just comply with the fine and pay it without appealing it, it seems that, at least in Italy, they might.
I think this is just bad reporting on the part of MR. They tell you what they read in a machine translation of the press release. But the evidence against Apple and Google are enumerated in linked PDF's, which MR doesn't mention at all.

In MR's defense, getting an automated translation of a webpage takes a two clicks of the mouse. Translating, reading, and then summarizing a few paragraphs is trivial. Getting a translation of a PDF takes effort. To get a rough translation, I had to download the PDF, go to Googles document translation page, and have it translated. It is not a clean translation, mind you, but you can get the gist. It is 58 pages, and I've not read it all, but it seems to talk a lot about Apple using data to target ads for Apple and 3rd party apps and services.

I've no opinion on whether any of this violated Italian law, but I suspect that the Italian regulatory agencies know more about it than anyone here.
 
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I think it is just another money grab by a country with a weak economy. Sure, we can sue/fine Apple because they have more than we do mentality.
Sure .. Italy (8 or 9 th economy in the world afaik) wil fix many things with 11M€…
 
I have never had any advertising from apple in over 20 years.

They once sent me an email inviting me to buy something “for Mother’s Day”.

That was a few days after my mother had just died. I was not best pleased.
 
Rather curious why Italy is doing this now, one bill at least is due to come into law in the EU soon, wonder if the denudes Italy the chance to go after Apple and Google.

What is Berlusconi up to these days?
 
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They once sent me an email inviting me to buy something “for Mother’s Day”.

That was a few days after my mother had just died. I was not best pleased.
I did not like that either, and that purple color phones was creepy!
 
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I have. But of course the UK government wants to 'simplify' the permissions you give, so my guess is that they will diverge from the EU to allow surveillance capitalism to run rampant. Anyway, Apple looks lees and less like it is concerned about privacy.

Wait, wasn’t GDPR a UK-first and then other countries took the idea onboard?
 
Wait, wasn’t GDPR a UK-first and then other countries took the idea onboard?

No, the GDPR is an EU regulation: each invidivual State member was required to enact their own national legislation in compliance with the regulation, UK included.
 
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No, the GDPR is an EU regulation: each invidivual State member was required to enact their own national legislation in compliance with the regulation, UK included.

Thank you for the answer, I stand corrected, good to know.
 
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Sure .. Italy (8 or 9 th economy in the world afaik) wil fix many things with 11M€…
Yet one of the worst GDPs per capita of any developed country. I believe they are below ALL 50 states at this point. They didn't make the cut for the Euro zone but were allowed in anyway.

This fine is a joke. Both Apple and Google are up front about data usage. Google is literally free because you implicitly opt in to targeted ads. Italy is way out of line here.
 
Yea.. This sounds like Apple is back to their old tricks. Smoke and mirrors.. nothing really new.
 
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