Brian Fung Talks to Armstrong & Getty

a lot of you are. Um, I wish you were more into it. In Europe, they treat your private information online as your private information. It's your property. That's the law, your data in the parlance of our time, and you have to agree in writing or at least clicking on it. I agree to to turn it over to somebody else. Obviously it's not that way in the United States. But Google, even though it's a that's on in your Google still doesn't care. Ryan Fall does a great job covering tech

and related issues for The Washington Post. Frances find Google many millions of dollars. Brian joins is now Hello Brian, how are you, sir, do it all right? Thanks for having me, It's always our pleasure. So well, why did the French come down on Google to the tune of fifty seven mill Well, the French said Google hasn't been clear enough about how, um, you know, it provides choices for consumers when they're trying to decide whether or not

um to sign up for Google services and use them. Um. And as a result, Google now had to pay about fifty seven billions I'm sorry, fifty seven million dollars um to uh to the French regulators who brought this fine against them. So are the namby pamby French courts saying that you know, my, uh, what Google is going to do with my data? Spread over seventy five densely written legalis papers, scattered across multiple documents, isn't good enough information

for consumers? Well you know the rules that um you know, Google goal allegedly ran a foul of g d PR is a big topic in Europe right now because it went into effect last year and it's caused um, you know a lot of companies to have to rethink and reconsider how they provide notice to consumers about how their data is used. UM. And in this case, it seems that you know, the the uh Google, Google and its services failed to provide adequate notice to consumers, and that's

what regulators are really going in after here. So are Europeans just more into privacy than we are in the United States, or or Google didn't do as good a job lobbying or what do you have any idea? Well, um, you know, if you talk to a lot of regulatory experts, UM, they do, by and large say, you know, Europe places a premium on privacy in ways that we don't really here in the United States. Um. They're also in Europe much more open to preemptive regulation than the United States

is where you know. Here, typically what happens is, um, you know, a government agency will uh draft you know, guidelines or um proposals on things, and then um, it's rarely a law that gets put into place, and then um, you know, an agency will bring an investigation and then if it finds that a company did something wrong, it will take that company to court and then that gets

hashed out of the judicial system. Uh. It's a very different system than what they have in Europe, where they're very clear, bright line rules up front for companies to follow the short answers. They regulate everything UM, and so they're super willing and sometimes that results in doing things that I think are a really good idea. Often not. You also have a lot of population, though that has

much more recently. Had a government UM misusing their powers ryan information and all that sort of stuff, they might they might prize their information more. Yeah, you know, that's an interesting point. Culturally speaking, people were dragged out of their homes in Europe, uh, you know, much more recently than in the United States. Brian Fung the Wampos Online covers Tech matters. Do you this is hard to predict.

This is more of a political cultural question than a tech think And you're a tech guy, But do you think those kind of laws are company in the United States? That's a great question. It's something that a lot of folks in Washington are trying to figure out right now. UM. Again, it's it's a big topic of debate here. You have you know, privacy advocates who are calling for UM the Federal Trade Commission, which is sort of the United States top data protection agency UM to get involved in UM,

you know, regulating companies like Google more heavily. Um. You know, the FTC is currently engaged in investigating Facebook over whether or not Facebook violated a consent decree that you know, an agreement it's signed with the FTC in eleven UM governing consumers privacy. Um. You have a number of lawmakers who have proposed legislation that could implement a national privacy

law that would cover all fifty states. UM. So this there's definitely a lot of conversation happening around privacy and how data is used by these companies. UM. But you know, at this point, we don't have anything that's on the books that will necessarily lead to finds like the kind of we saw Google getting hit with. If you'd like to know more, we'll have a link at Armstrong and Guetty dot com to Brian's story. Brian, it's always enlightening.

Thanks a bunch, Thanks for having me. It's our pleasure. Also, speaking of the Wappo, it was wasn't long ago that they published a story we talked about that Google is the number one lobbyist in America. Everybody should know that at this point in twenty there's one reason for us. There's one reason A lot of times it's complicated, you know,

big lobby in it. This one's simple. They their entire model is you use Google, They get all your info, they make money off of it, don't regulate anything about privacy or online advertising. That is why Google spent, for instance, eighteen million dollars. In the numbers feen aren't quite out. I'm guessing spreading in among Republicans and Democrats to make sure both sides of the aisle are covered in making

sure we don't go with European style laws. The prickly libertarianism of the Armstrong and Getty show is very big in Silicon Valley, and we appreciate folks listening there. I would like to make it clear to Google that I can be bought for about two million dollars. I will alter any in all opinions about you and an online privacy and online advertising again to million United States dollars, and I, Joe Getty will be bought to me. The idea that that information belongs to them is just is silly.

I understand the argument or you don't have to use Google, right, It's a decent enough legalistic argument that we offer a service you don't have to use a smartphone. There in our seventy five pages of user agreements, again scattered over three different documents that you'd have to hire a team of lawyers to inspect. We make it clear to you what we're gonna do with it, and you said, yeah, that's fine, clear right, And that was actually a part

of what the French court said. They said, essentially, you would have to do so much research to understand this. It's just not realistic, which you know, Viva le France, I say hello again. You know, it's funny. Life's complicated that that you subtlety shades are gray. France regulates everything to the point that they've choked their economy to death, and cute little Macrone is trying his best to tangle it. I think in this case they've probably done something I

can right, They're right, it's my information. It is my unless I opt in to give it away. No, it's mine right where I go, what I buy all that stuff. By the way, I googled the fact that Google was the biggest lobbyist and and that was the number one result. So I appreciate that they didn't bury it seven pages deep or anything. There. It was when you're ready to ride Metro. We want you to know we're ready for you.

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