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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by merde@sh.itjust.works to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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[-] Xylight@lemmy.xylight.dev 98 points 1 year ago

They make $1.4B per day. This is basically just a cheap subscription for them

[-] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 105 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

For comparison, if you made $365,000 per year this would be the same as you paying 7 cents per day in a fine, or $25 per year.

If a fine is less than the profit it is legal and the cost of doing business.

[-] Elw@lemmy.sdf.org 20 points 1 year ago

Exactly right. Facebook will factor this in as am expected cost of doing business (if they didn’t already) and their stock will go up. This isn’t a penalty, this is just like paying a bribe. In the end, both are just lining the pockets of officials more interested in appearing to do something for the next news cycle so they can get re-elected.

[-] ech@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Did you mean $365,000,000? Or did you get confused by the "."? Cause that's used as a comma for numbers in a lot of European countries, so it's $100k per day, not $100.

Also, it'd be exactly 10 cents per day, since $365k per year would be $1k per day, which 100 is 10% of.

[-] walrusintraining@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

No, they meant 100k is 0.0071428571429% of 1.4b, and 26 is the same percent of 365k. Basically, if you made 365k a year and had an equal percentage fine, it would come out to less than 7 cents per day.

[-] ech@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

Ah, my mistake.

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[-] riccardo@lemmy.ml 65 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

From the article:

$100,000 per day for a country with ~5.4 million people is a lot. If even 20 percent used Facebook regularly, then that would still be 10 cents per user per day. It's unlikely that Meta is generating so much profit per user - every day.

This is a reasonable observation and I wonder what Meta would do once one of their services becomes unprofitable in a specific country. Anyway if you add Instagram and WhatsApp to the math, maybe they would still generate profits from the Norwegian userbase

[-] julianh@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

I wonder if this is a big amount for Norway's government. After 3 years you've got 100 million dollars. Not huge but you could build a nice hospital or something with that.

[-] merde@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago

per capita, iirc, Norway is richer than U.S.

they don't need to fine fecesbook to get rich

[-] pufferfischerpulver@feddit.de 11 points 1 year ago

Not really, they have the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Pension_Fund_of_Norway

[-] Version@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago

Dude, Norway is one of the richest countries in the world.

[-] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 48 points 1 year ago

I don't know where you're getting that number but it's definitely wrong. Their most profitable year so far was 2021, and they made $39.4 billion for the entire year. Source

[-] ech@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

So assuming things haven't changed too much for them, this is about 1%. Barely noticeable.

[-] Obi@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 year ago

I mean, I want them to pay as much as possible, but 1% of their global revenue, for just a small country like Norway, still seems pretty decent.

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[-] Xylight@lemmy.xylight.dev 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ah. Got that number from a Google search. Thanks for telling me.

[-] KonekoSalem@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago

I think the 2 points the article makes about that are pretty valid though. It's most probably more than Facebook's revenue in this single country plus it's just the beginning.

[-] MisterMcBolt@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

It must be nice to live in a country that actively protects its people.

[-] DreadPotato@sopuli.xyz 16 points 1 year ago

I would love for the EU to just go all-out hardcore privacy protection and fine GAFAM et al. into fucking oblivion for not complying. If they shut down services, that's probably for the better, although it will be a rough awakening for most people (probably including myself)

[-] magnetosphere@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
[-] merde@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Google Amazon Facebook Apple Microsoft 👉 big tech

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[-] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Companies operate at a loss in certain markets all the time in order to keep competition out. Even if they're not profitable in Norway, they don't want a Norwegian social network muscling in on their territory.

"Competition is for losers." - Peter Thiel, first investor in Facebook and mentor of Mark Zuckerberg

[-] linucs@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

But I really hope this sets a precedent for all other countries, need money to finance something? Just tax the shit out of Facebook. Of course it's a joke, we should properly tax them in the first place, or better yet force them not to exploit people data for profit

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[-] kayaven@lemmy.world 83 points 1 year ago

Fines like these should be exponential in some way, that way they can't keep getting away with it.

[-] drbluefall@toast.ooo 43 points 1 year ago

Nah, exponentiation is too good for them.

Fines should be tetrated.

[-] grue@lemmy.ml 29 points 1 year ago
[-] SuperSpruce@lemmy.ml 22 points 1 year ago

Explanation for the downvoters: The double up arrow is the symbol for tetration.

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[-] KrimsonBun@lemmy.ml 58 points 1 year ago

Not enough. The price for violating a human right should be enough to leave anyone bankrupt.

[-] matlag@sh.itjust.works 48 points 1 year ago

Besides panicking a few regional managers, this can only be a bad news for Meta if other countries, or even better, the EU follows them.

100kUSD/day for a 5.4M inhabitants country, that scales to 8.3M$/day for the total 450M inhabitants EU has (yes: I know that's not how it works, I'm doing a very gross approximation here).

That's would be 3B$/year. Now we're talking!

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[-] Phen@lemmy.eco.br 46 points 1 year ago

Meta was also recently ordered to pay a thousand dollars to every brazilian who can prove they were using Facebook in a specific year. Though they are still fighting back on that decision and no payment was made yet.

This will probably be changed into some fixed payment to the government instead, if not overturned completely, but it would be fun to see the whole country getting some extra paychecks for using Facebook.

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 11 points 1 year ago

Facebook should pay it. Imagine the user uptick when people think other countries might get the same payout.

[-] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 31 points 1 year ago

This is exactly the sort of thing I want governments doing. Let bad businesses fail! Help them down the drain, even.

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[-] covert_czar@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 1 year ago

All the governments should do like this

[-] hydration9806@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago

For those who are dumb like I am, the fine is one hundred thousand per day and not one hundred per day (the decimal threw me off)

[-] Provider@feddit.de 13 points 1 year ago

I did not get what you meant at first but yeah most of us europeans us "," as a decimal and "." to make bigger numbers more readable

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[-] MalReynolds@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Anti revenue stream.

I likey

[-] utopify_org@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago

I should visit Norway, sounds like there are cool people there.

[-] kworpy@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

From what I've been hearing, it's actually one of the best places to live in.

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[-] Syo@kbin.social 10 points 1 year ago

LOL. To put that in perspective, let imagine it's some $100,000 annual pay worker. This means Facebook just added 365 employees to their ranks, if they ignored this order completely.

They fire and hire people in the thousands, the penalty is a joke of scale.

[-] moody@lemmings.world 22 points 1 year ago

Except this is for a single country. Is it worth that kind of expense for 5 million people? Does Facebook make $36.5 million in profit just in Norway? If not, then this is a net loss for them.

[-] MonsiuerPatEBrown@reddthat.com 10 points 1 year ago

Danegeld.

Danegeld never changes.

[-] Apeeksiht@lemdro.id 7 points 1 year ago

I wish WhatsApp get similar treatment also. the entirety of my country depend on it.

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this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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