This thread is about new members entering (e.g. Croatia) and old members leaving (e.g. Britain) the Union, as well as other moves and changes in the European collective collective.

Ah, you are right that I am confusing different EU directives here. However, the Wikipedia article says that it's indeed a bundle of directives, so the matter itself is confused and confusing. And I remind you that you have still not cited a single benefit of the GDPR to counterbalance its already observable evils.

Actually I did. The Internet has taken a hard dystopian turn the last 15 years. Basically companies have been encouraged to extract as much personal information as possible on their customers and "customers" as they can, whether or not they need it (and they usually don't), because their share price will be higher if they do. To add to the injury, their data security is generally shit, so all your data will pretty much be in the hand of American, Chinese, Russian, and probably other intelligence agencies, plus whatever data freelance hackers come over for resale.

We have moved very fast towards a total surveillance society. Technology would probably have led us in this direction anyway, but business decisions have made the move much faster. GDPR has slowed this trend down, it hasn't reversed it. The companies are now more responsible for the data they collect and trade.  It could be likened to how factories early in the industrial revolution could pollute at will, whatever sludge ran from their pipes or gases from their chimneys were of no concern to them. Likewise IT companies could, should, gather data, and whatever happened to those further down the line was not their concern. This is more important long run than the features of GDPR itself. But GDPR has several goodies.

I am no great fan of consent, because it is not truly informed. With GDPR it is less uninformed, much simpler, and opt-in instead of opt-out. Opt-ins annoy you, but opt-outs aren't consent. Simpler opt-ins means something that can be tracked for you by the browser, which I imagine it will eventually. 

Right to be forgotten is a winner, as is right to access. This gives us access to the same information as the data aggregators have, and we can get them erased. That includes data passed on to other parties. A company can no longer sell data and not care where it is going. Most people would not actively get their data deleted, but with activists enough would to set up a system where this is easily achieved. In other words accountability will be built in, and with opt-in everyone benefits. 

This is further enhanced through privacy by design and privacy by default. This pushes companies towards minimal data gathering and retention rather than today's maximum and reselling. These don't have much teeth though, but those can be added later. 

Finally there are clearer requirements for safeguarding data and reporting breaches. That matters as well. Probably wouldn't stop the aforementioned intelligence agencies, but would give us better checks on the rest. 

And I remind you that you have still not cited a single benefit of the GDPR to counterbalance its already observable evils.

Actually I did. The Internet has taken a hard dystopian turn the last 15 years. Basically companies have been encouraged to extract as much personal information as possible on their customers and "customers" as they can, whether or not they need it (and they usually don't), because their share price will be higher if they do. To add to the injury, their data security is generally shit, so all your data will pretty much be in the hand of American, Chinese, Russian, and probably other intelligence agencies, plus whatever data freelance hackers come over for resale.

And how does this counterbalance the evil? It is the evil.

In the 90's the situation was not so evil. Generally in the services I used, when I stopped using them, the account would self-destruct after a while. A few warnings arrived by email and when I took no action, right to be forgotten happened by itself!

GDPR allegedly revolves around right to be forgotten but it is not even attempting to return to those good old times.

I am no great fan of consent, because it is not truly informed. With GDPR it is less uninformed, much simpler, and opt-in instead of opt-out. Opt-ins annoy you, but opt-outs aren't consent. Simpler opt-ins means something that can be tracked for you by the browser, which I imagine it will eventually.

In European Union there is nothing to distinguish opt-in from opt-out. Opt-in and opt-out may exist in USA (and probably un UK), but not in (continental) Europe.

In European Union, there is just one thing: consent. And, with GDPR, it is consent loudly over any alleged rights. The consent is there for you to give consent to whatever the privacy policy demands of you, even though the privacy policy (or, more correctly, the popup for the public to give consent to the privacy policy) has no business to be there in the first place.

Right to be forgotten is a winner, as is right to access. This gives us access to the same information as the data aggregators have, and we can get them erased. That includes data passed on to other parties. A company can no longer sell data and not care where it is going.

Yes, these rights are cool, but GDPR does not address these rights. It does not give you the right to be forgotten. It does not give you the right to access.

GDPR does the opposite. GDPR demands websites to block public access unless the public acknowledges that they accept to be tracked by cookies, i.e. the public must give up the right to be anonymous even when they are not signed up or logged in.

Selling personal/confidential data was always illegal. All that needs to be done is to enforce the laws we already have in place. The GDPR should have stopped the practice of writing outrageous things in privacy policies that portals and webservices make you sign when you sign up. Does GDPR make privacy policies sensible and uniform across the board? I guess not.

Most people would not actively get their data deleted, but with activists enough would to set up a system where this is easily achieved. In other words accountability will be built in, and with opt-in everyone benefits.

As long as the self-destruct scheme of unused accounts is not a legal requirement, the situation of zero accountability and outrageous abuse will continue. In fact, it just worsened, because we are made to give consent to random privacy policies that nobody will ever read, and which for this reason should be legally required to be sensible and uniform across the board.

The problem is that privacy policies are stupid nonsense that are not worth reading. They are unlawful to begin with, that's why the only right thing is to ignore them. The effect of GDPR is that we are required to give consent to them even when we are not signing up or logging in anywhere.

This is further enhanced through privacy by design and privacy by default. This pushes companies towards minimal data gathering and retention rather than today's maximum and reselling. These don't have much teeth though, but those can be added later.

Finally there are clearer requirements for safeguarding data and reporting breaches. That matters as well. Probably wouldn't stop the aforementioned intelligence agencies, but would give us better checks on the rest.

You have bought into this bs so deeply there is no way helping you out of it.

The problem is that privacy policies are stupid nonsense that are not worth reading. They are unlawful to begin with, that's why the only right thing is to ignore them.

Exactly.
But ignore it is not enough.

'United Ireland' would slash £8.5bn from North's deficit

A new report by an economist who worked with the IMF on German reunification argues the North would cease to be a financial dependency in the event of a 'United Ireland.'

Dr. Gunther Thumann calculates the North would save £8.5billion a year by leaving the UK and uniting with the rest of the country.

This would bring the North close to a balanced budget in a reunification scenario, working on a reported deficit figure of £9.2billion for 2013/14.

Dr. Thumann's 'Northern Ireland's Income and Expenditure in a Reunification scenario' report, was commissioned by the Oireachtas Good Friday Agreement Implementation Committee last month and co-authored by the Fianna Fáil Senator Mark Daly.

Contrary to claims the island of Ireland can't afford the North, Dr. Thumann maintains pension liabilites accrued while the 'Six Counties' were part of the UK would be London's responsibility, slashing £2.8billion a year from the deficit. An annual £2.9billion bill towards UK defence expenditure, debt interest, international service, EU contributions, and the upkeep of the UK royal family and other 'non-identifiable' items routinely charged to the people of the North would, equally, be of no concern for the governors of a new agreed Ireland. Up to £1.1bn in accounting adjustment figures attributed by Westminster to the North, meanwhile, would also no longer be applicable.

Dr. Thumann calculates that the amalgamation of the northern and southern public services would save £1.7bn a year resulting in a cumulative saving of £8.5bn without having even taken account of the likely potential for growth in the North as happened in East Germany following its reunification.

A reunified Ireland would certainly have made Brexit negotiations a lot simpler.

Now more guff from EU lover jax. May I remind that Ireland ages back were desperate to get into the Europe club because they were financially a disaster. Even in more recent times we loaned the Dublin corner over 7 billion. Places like Ireland and other strained places like Portugal and others were not capable of a financial basis or run themselves properly and getting into the EU was a desperation and Ireland did greatly change because it could not find capability to manage itself.  Southern Ireland has much improved due to Europe handouts and good for them but we can exist with the EU and subsiding the less well off places.

And they are already implementing anti-VPN technologies https://www.is.fi/digitoday/art-2000005588554.html

The evilness is implemented by Kaltura, US-Israeli firm. The relevant error message is "No KS where KS is needed"

Next step: anti-anti-VPN technology!

I would remind jax in his pomposity that apart from what I said can I remind that Southern Ireland only started getting somewhere because it had to be in the EU to be like countries like Portugal and others for the begging bowl.  We DID help Dublin financially.  As for the sneaking dig at the Royals I would also remind smart alec jax that we in hard money facts get the profits from the Royal estates side of things and about time that reminder aired.

What I have also said was that the Irish Republic has improved internally on political and religious headaches they had for decades. They are NOT going on about a united Ireland and for all my compliments for some Irish changes there are still aspects of down south that a great many in Ulster would not be happy with.It was that Sinn Fein crowd of very leftist gits that bum on about a united Ireland and as democratic as a bunch of old Soviet mentalities! They won't even sit in the UK parliament because of the royal oath issue. Away back before the 2nd World War we had a couple of Commies in Westminster and they sat there after the oath. It was the same bunch of  creeps who bumped off the N. Ireland Assembly by misusing an issue. The SF IS the political wing of the murderous Provisional IRA scumbags and Blair should never have pursued what he did forcing a shared situation.

I figured the European nut lot would make Brexit as awkward as damn possible and put on a front of being wonderful and so on. I am glad we are getting out and back in control and it is a damn disgrace that Euro lot cannot even get their annual "books" sorted year in and year out.  They go on yakking about the wonder of it all yet cannot do a decent job when someone democratically wants to leave!

And they are already implementing anti-VPN technologies [...] The relevant error message is "No KS where KS is needed"

Next step: anti-anti-VPN technology!

Ha, I stumbled on a workaround completely on my own. And I am not sharing 

Netflix has been blocking VPNs for sometime now. I don't remember what method I was using, probably a lazy one. Thought I wanted to watch the new Star Trek (I was wrong about that). I refuse to give CBS any money though. I mean, Netflix paid for it, I pay them - seems reasonable to stay the course. CBS still messed it up. 💩

Theresa May delights us by showing her dance skills

Theresa May delights us by showing her dance skills

Yes... maybe Putin dances better Afro folklore. I doubt RT to ever show us such splendid spectacle.

Brexit to them, just disappear forever.

Yes... maybe Putin dances better Afro folklore. I doubt RT to ever show us such splendid spectacle.

Putin is no stranger to dancing https://youtu.be/sC2DNWLEDrY?t=45

And not to singing either https://youtu.be/IV4IjHz2yIo?t=80

He is awesome like Yeltsin https://youtu.be/cRysHHzLAmM?t=20

And not to singing either https://youtu.be/IV4IjHz2yIo?t=80

I can't help but notice Gérard Depardieu.

I can't help but notice Gérard Depardieu.

Yes, he strikes the screen so powerfully that you barely notice Vincent Cassel, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, etc.

Exactly.

Putin is no stranger to dancing https://youtu.be/sC2DNWLEDrY?t=45

And not to singing either https://youtu.be/IV4IjHz2yIo?t=80

He even rides bears half naked, practices karate and plays piano.
That should make him an hero in Russia...

He even rides bears half naked, ...

Would you mind sharing your cartoon collection?

Would you mind sharing your cartoon collection? 

It's public.


Yep.. Photoshop probably, fake news. Trump is right.

European Union against Killer Robots

Source Future of Life Institute

The European Parliament passed a resolution on September 12, 2018 calling for an international ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS). The resolution was adopted with 82% of the members voting in favor of it.

Among other things, the resolution calls on its Member States and the European Council "to develop and adopt, as a matter of urgency ... a common position on lethal autonomous weapon systems that ensures meaningful human control over the critical functions of weapon systems, including during deployment."

The UN has not been able to take advances against such important matter because...

The countries that took the strongest stances against a LAWS ban at the recent UN meeting were the United States, Russia, South Korea, and Israel.

Not China? Interesting.

The UN has not been able to take advances against such important matter because...

The countries that took the strongest stances against a LAWS ban at the recent UN meeting were the United States, Russia, South Korea, and Israel.

I wonder who is wagging what tail. Generally, the United States will do as directed by Israel.

At the State Department we used to predict that if Israel's prime minister should announce that the world is flat, within 24 hours Congress would pass a resolution congratulating him on the discovery."- A CHANGING IMAGE, Richard H. Curtiss Foreign Service Officer

The thing is, the best way to understand Theresa May's predicament is to imagine that 52 percent of Britain had voted that the government should build a submarine out of cheese.

https://twitter.com/hugorifkind/status/1072222352035987456

That sounds like one of those '50s cartoons.

Brexit timeline: key dates in UK's divorce from EU

The UK is scheduled to leave the EU at 11pm local time on March 29 2019.

Just a little bit more patience

Here's a vocab list: https://www.touteleurope.eu/actualite/brexique-le-lexique-du-brexit.html