The Independent View: Europe’s New Privacy Rule Helps Facebook and Google

The Law of Unintended Consequences is playing out in the U.S. Technology Sector, where Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google, appear to be Benefiting in an unexpected way from the European Privacy Law that was meant to Limit their Power.

On May 25th, the European Union (EU) will begin Enforcing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which in many Cases require Companies to obtain Affirmative Consent to use European Residents’ Personal Information.

The Change has sent Shudders through the Digital-Advertising Sector, from Online Publishers to the Analytics Firms, Data Brokers, and Buying Platforms that use Personal Data to aim Ads at Individuals in Real Time.

Google and Facebook, using their Scale and Sophistication, are applying a Relatively Strict Interpretation of the New Law, Competitors say, setting an Industry Standard that is Hard for Smaller Firms to Meet.

The EU’s Justice Commissioner, Věra Jourová, on a recent trip to California, said she was surprised by how Unbothered the Tech Giants were when it came to GDPR. “They were more relaxed, and I became more nervous,” she said. “They have the money, an army of lawyers, an army of technicians and so on.”

Large Multinationals will spend $7.8 Billion to Comply with the EU’s New Privacy Regulations, though some Consultants say more than Half of Companies won’t be ready when the Law takes effect in May.

One of the biggest Impacts that GDPR will have for Consumers, Citizens of Countries that Comply with GDPR, is the Right to be Forgotten. A Person can Request that they be Removed from a Record. What if the Record is part of a Blockchain? This poses a challenge for Blockchain Implementations.

Blockchains are Designed to Last Forever. Each Block has a Hash Tag based on its Contents, and carries the Hash of its Predecessor. So when you look at a Block on a Blockchain, you can Trace the Block Back through its Predecessors to the Founding Block. Changing the Contents of a Block changes the Block’s Hash Tag.

If a Block’s Hash Changes, the Successor Blocks will no longer Reference it. This would Brake the Chain to the Original, Valid, Block from further Chains.

Rebuilding the Chain with the Replacement Block means the Hash for each Successive Block(s) will have to be Recalculated, which is an Enormous Computational Task. And that Cost will increase, as the Deleted Data could be spread over many Chains.