Rendered at 22:21:51 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Cloudflare Workers.
engeljohnb 28 minutes ago [-]
I'm glad it all worked out for this individual. I hope more people live their lives like this as the dystopia progresses.
Unfortunately, especially in the US, exercising your rights, or even just reading every paper you're expected to put your name to, not only constantly pisses people off for some reason, but also puts you at a significant disadvantage compared to the people that never push back in the interest of not making waves, or even because "whatever it's fine."
deepsun 11 minutes ago [-]
Once I rented an apartment in US, and the documents said that they can make videos, pictures and audio recordings of me and my family, and use it for their own purposes including commercial. I objected, but their position was that no one is going to involve legal department for me, and I am free to go away.
smcleod 1 minutes ago [-]
Pretty sure that's a violation of fundamental human rights as it's your place of living. Surely that can't be legal, even in the US can it?
bsder 3 minutes ago [-]
> and I am free to go away.
This is the crux of the problem when landlords are allowed to form or join an "association" that gets too pervasive.
This was at the heart of the RealPage lawsuits.
solid_fuel 22 minutes ago [-]
> Unfortunately, especially in the US, exercising your rights, or even just reading every paper you're expected to put your name to, not only constantly pisses people off for some reason
Yup. It's particularly sad seeing other people in this very thread talking about how they would "ban this customer for life" just for knowing their rights.
I think it's pathetic that this has become the culture amongst large swathes of Americans - especially ones who consider themselves patriotic. This country was founded in rebellion and the assertion of our rights, and somehow the exact opposite is now the ideal of many citizens now.
0xfffafaCrash 24 minutes ago [-]
> The reply I received a few days later did me the favour of putting the violation on the record. Their position, in their own words, was that "in order to receive marketing / offers, it is a condition to be a member of the customer club." That one sentence is the whole case. They had taken a right I am entitled to exercise for free and turned it into the price of admission.
I don’t understand… it would be one thing if it said “receiving marketing/offers is a condition of being a member of the customer club” but that’s not what is being stated above… rather that being a member of the club is required to receive marketing — perhaps something has been misworded or lost in translation?
drdaeman 3 minutes ago [-]
Yea, I don't get it either. Receiving being a condition on membership means (in my understanding) only that non-members can't (shouldn't) receive anything, not that members will or must receive something. Which sounds perfectly normal and sane to me.
LearnYouALisp 21 minutes ago [-]
sounded exactly like translation error from a German-related lang.
e.g. "to receive offers...is a condition to be in..."
Telaneo 39 minutes ago [-]
Datatilsynet, the Norwegian DPA, from my experience, consistently has the user in mind. It (sadly) takes a long time for things to pass through the system, but they consistently come to good decisions.
pavel_lishin 60 minutes ago [-]
The image isn't loading for me, all I see is the prompt used to generate it - which is genuinely preferable.
QuantumNomad_ 21 minutes ago [-]
For me it was showing the image and the prompt, but the whole page was unstyled. But when I reloaded the page now, the css loaded also and the prompt is not shown.
I guess the web server was temporarily overwhelmed by traffic resulting in images (like for you) and css files (like for me) not being consistently served to all visitors.
echoangle 43 minutes ago [-]
Good to know that this is illegal. One of my email providers also does this, maybe I’ll also have to try reporting them and see what happens.
pixelpoet 58 minutes ago [-]
Love to see this, and love our privacy and data handling laws!
peaseagee 1 hours ago [-]
And how much did it make them over those 5 years?
Retric 54 minutes ago [-]
The fine is only part of the story. They likely spent more money than the fine fighting it over 5 years as fines increase next time if you don’t stop.
coldtea 46 minutes ago [-]
And how much did it make them over those 5 years?
aucisson_masque 42 minutes ago [-]
You don't know how much it did cost them. Why would you care about how much they gained ? You can't compare something when you have neither value.
anakaine 36 minutes ago [-]
Because if, as the regulator, you fail to benchmark what they gained then your laws can be ignored and your fines paid as simply a cost of doing business.
Its why you find the Australian regulator for consumer affairs handing out $200m+ fines to telecommunications companies, for example.
Retric 35 minutes ago [-]
By that logic regulators should lower fines if the action wasn’t profitable. Which creates an expensive legal fight.
Instead, it’s much better to scale fines based on the scale of the entity involved which is easier to measure and more broadly effective. Then escalate if they don’t stop.
tux1968 8 minutes ago [-]
Like in Finland where speeding ticket fines are based on your income. For instance, in one well known case a businessman was fined €121,000 for going 82 km/h in a 50 km/h zone.
9 minutes ago [-]
RobRivera 7 minutes ago [-]
Lol. Brookfield Place wifi had an OPT IN for their wifi to receive marketing.
If you unclicked it, the 'connect to wifi' button greyed out and a notification appears saying that Opt In is required for wifi.
ryandrake 1 hours ago [-]
Excellent outcome. I wish we had these rights in the USA! Too bad justice took 5 years though.
QuantumNomad_ 34 minutes ago [-]
> the only way to stop the marketing was to cancel my membership of the club altogether
I have experienced this same thing with at least one other big company in Norway.
I could opt out of either SMS or e-mail, but not both, or I would not be able to keep the membership.
Unfortunately, I never made a note of which one that was exactly so I can’t name them and shame them on the spot.
Despite half-hearted attempts at stopping marketing emails now and then by individually logging in and opting out, or clicking unsubscribe links embedded in the email, my email continues to be flooded with marketing both from domestic and foreign companies that I’ve done business with. There is so many companies that even going through a handful of them at a time and unsubscribing there is a seemingly endless amount of companies that remain to unsubscribe from.
It is great to see that someone fights back, and that it is resulting in fines.
tomtom1337 1 hours ago [-]
This is extremely cool reading! I'm impressed that they actually fined Elkjøp (as they should!) but very surprised that they didn't keep you informed!
Thank you for sharing!
pixelneon 46 minutes ago [-]
Hahaha, the sticker looks really funny, but I like it.
throw9394494 12 minutes ago [-]
I wonder if anyone who are cheering this fine, actually read and tried to implement GDPR. It is a nightmare to be fully compliant for small companies.
It is mostly just a theater (like endless cookie consent dialogs in anonymous browsing), to employ more experts and bureaucrats.
EU is now pushing privacy laws that severely undermine privacy.
londons_explore 31 minutes ago [-]
If I did business in the EU, I would be banning this chap from my services on the basis that the risk he poses to the business is too great...
onli 27 minutes ago [-]
You would do no such thing, because if you tried, you wouldn't have a business in the EU anymore.
Broken_Hippo 23 minutes ago [-]
In other words, you'd ban someone because they might notice that you are doing illegal stuff and you might get caught.
Follow the laws and it isn't an issue. I'm pretty sure banning someone for that stuff is probably illegal, too.
solid_fuel 26 minutes ago [-]
Frankly, this attitude is pathetic. Absolute loser behaviour.
I don't think you should be doing business anywhere if customers being familiar with the law and knowing their rights scares you. Frankly if you are running a business, you should be familiar with the laws and regulations, doing otherwise - especially when someone points out that your behaviour is illegal - is negligence and punishment with a fine is completely appropriate. Welcome to living in a society.
throw9394494 21 minutes ago [-]
Just awoid some jurisdictions. Bulgaria is in EU, has all the same access, and has no time for this BS.
Symbiote 12 minutes ago [-]
You can see the fines the Bulgarian regulator has handed out here:
Unfortunately, especially in the US, exercising your rights, or even just reading every paper you're expected to put your name to, not only constantly pisses people off for some reason, but also puts you at a significant disadvantage compared to the people that never push back in the interest of not making waves, or even because "whatever it's fine."
This is the crux of the problem when landlords are allowed to form or join an "association" that gets too pervasive.
This was at the heart of the RealPage lawsuits.
Yup. It's particularly sad seeing other people in this very thread talking about how they would "ban this customer for life" just for knowing their rights.
I think it's pathetic that this has become the culture amongst large swathes of Americans - especially ones who consider themselves patriotic. This country was founded in rebellion and the assertion of our rights, and somehow the exact opposite is now the ideal of many citizens now.
I don’t understand… it would be one thing if it said “receiving marketing/offers is a condition of being a member of the customer club” but that’s not what is being stated above… rather that being a member of the club is required to receive marketing — perhaps something has been misworded or lost in translation?
e.g. "to receive offers...is a condition to be in..."
I guess the web server was temporarily overwhelmed by traffic resulting in images (like for you) and css files (like for me) not being consistently served to all visitors.
Its why you find the Australian regulator for consumer affairs handing out $200m+ fines to telecommunications companies, for example.
Instead, it’s much better to scale fines based on the scale of the entity involved which is easier to measure and more broadly effective. Then escalate if they don’t stop.
If you unclicked it, the 'connect to wifi' button greyed out and a notification appears saying that Opt In is required for wifi.
I have experienced this same thing with at least one other big company in Norway.
I could opt out of either SMS or e-mail, but not both, or I would not be able to keep the membership.
Unfortunately, I never made a note of which one that was exactly so I can’t name them and shame them on the spot.
Despite half-hearted attempts at stopping marketing emails now and then by individually logging in and opting out, or clicking unsubscribe links embedded in the email, my email continues to be flooded with marketing both from domestic and foreign companies that I’ve done business with. There is so many companies that even going through a handful of them at a time and unsubscribing there is a seemingly endless amount of companies that remain to unsubscribe from.
It is great to see that someone fights back, and that it is resulting in fines.
Thank you for sharing!
It is mostly just a theater (like endless cookie consent dialogs in anonymous browsing), to employ more experts and bureaucrats.
EU is now pushing privacy laws that severely undermine privacy.
Follow the laws and it isn't an issue. I'm pretty sure banning someone for that stuff is probably illegal, too.
I don't think you should be doing business anywhere if customers being familiar with the law and knowing their rights scares you. Frankly if you are running a business, you should be familiar with the laws and regulations, doing otherwise - especially when someone points out that your behaviour is illegal - is negligence and punishment with a fine is completely appropriate. Welcome to living in a society.
https://www.enforcementtracker.com/