One of America’s largest tech companies is telling U.S. lawmakers it doesn’t want to see the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation matched on U.S. shores. Facebook aims to prevent another Cambridge Analytica by suspending 200 apps for potential data misuse. And Donald Trump tweets his support for Chinese smartphone maker ZTE .
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On Reddit, readers are condemning IBM for sending more than 100 executives to Capitol Hill this week in an effort to prevent U.S. policy makers from copying GDPR, Europe’s new privacy standards, which give citizens the right to access their personal data and learn how it’s being used, prevents companies from processing personal data unless users give explicit consent, and requires them to adopt privacy by design principles, among other restrictions. To be clear, nobody in Washington has proposed copying GDPR, and we feel comfortable predicting that nobody is likely to in a political climate expected to vote down government-sanctioned net neutrality on Wednesday. But since the European Union is adopting GDPR in two weeks, it would appear that IBM wanted to cut the idea off at its root.
Next, trending on Facebook is Facebook’s reveal that it’s suspended around 200 apps suspected of abusing data. In a May 14th Newsroom post, the company said that it was in the middle of investigating all apps that – like Cambridge Analytica – had access to the personal data of users’ friends, whether they had consented to having their personal information collected or not. Facebook closed that loophole in 2014, but clearly wants to avoid another data privacy scandal. Thus far the company has investigated thousands of apps in addition to the 200 which have officially been suspended
Finally, trending on LinkedIn: Donald Trump has tweeted his support for Chinese smartphone maker ZTE, saying that he will be collaborating with China’s Xi Jinping to save 75,000 Chinese jobs – jobs that were at risk in the first place because ZTE violated U.S. sanctions against trade with Iran and as a result did not have access to the American component parts it relies on to make its phones.
President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2018
So if you think Trump’s tweet sounds odd coming from someone who emphasizes American interests first – and, not incidentally, was threatening a trade war with China last month – numerous sources that Trump would probably call “fake news” are saying: you’re right.
When a car is sent to the United States from China, there is a Tariff to be paid of 2 1/2%. When a car is sent to China from the United States, there is a Tariff to be paid of 25%. Does that sound like free or fair trade. No, it sounds like STUPID TRADE – going on for years!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 9, 2018