An advocate of rules-based regulation would say this can make regulators unpredictable and capricious.
Unfortunately, so might students of history. Ask anyone in the UK who was working in the freelance or contract world when IR35 was introduced.
In that case, too, the principle was reasonable enough: there was a loophole in tax law where you could decide you're a contractor instead of an employee and pay less money despite for all other practical purposes still being an employee, and this was being actively exploited by some people.
In that case, too, the reality was that most people working in the sector probably wouldn't be challenged by the authorities, not least because the enforcers had limited resources.
But in that case, too, a given individual's status was often unclear. While some of those who were deterred or subsequently received penalties really were engaging in obvious tax avoidance, other reports described crippling penalties for people whose arrangements appeared to have been quite reasonable but to have fallen foul of someone in government's dubious interpretation.
This led to substantial amounts of time and money being collectively spent by the freelance and contractor community incorporating new legalese into contracts and paying for advice and taking out insurance policies. An entire trade body was formed primarily to deal with this threat. Even today, those of us who take on any sort of individual contract or freelance work from time to time have to be careful not to say or do certain otherwise reasonable things, or to allow others to do so, for fear of tipping the balance or giving any appearance that might be subject to challenge.
And the irony is that while the law arguably had some effect initially in getting contractors to go back to being permies if they were just using it as a tax dodge, overall it appears that IR35 has raised very little extra tax revenue for the government. It turns out that the vast majority of contractors and freelancers were operating in that fashion legitimately and continue to do so, and most enforcement actions appear to fail to the extent that the government even tries any more. Nevertheless, the rules still hang like a sword of Damocles above the whole sector.
Are you claiming that most companies are not storing data in compliance with current law today? There's a meme about how all businesses are trying to exploit personal data mercilessly at any cost, yet among the small businesses around here and the people I know who work there, none of us is in that line of work, nor I suspect would any of us want to be.
I do not believe that the vast majority of companies which are significantly impacted by the GPDR were storing data in a reasonable manner, no.
Having to spend some effort to make sure you are in compliance with a huge new piece of regulation is expected and I understand that people complain about having to do it. However, after the initial bring-up pains any business which continues to have a problem with the GPDR most likely has a business model directly in conflict with the spirit of the law.
I do not believe that the vast majority of companies which are significantly impacted by the GPDR were storing data in a reasonable manner, no.
If that's your personal belief then obviously you're entitled to your opinion, but have you seen any actual evidence that that is the case?
However, after the initial bring-up pains any business which continues to have a problem with the GPDR most likely has a business model directly in conflict with the spirit of the law.
Perhaps, but as you say, what we know now is that there are some initial compliance costs for everyone. If nothing else, we all have to understand the new regulations and our obligations under them, and we will now have to allow for additional subject rights and stronger and more specific documentation and notification obligations, which generally apply retrospectively as well.
I admit that part of my concern here is not specific to the GDPR, but rather to the general practice of creating ever more rules governing businesses. Every time some new regulation comes along, the costs of running a business go up. Not only does that impose some level of overhead on established businesses, it also has a chilling effect on new businesses starting up, and on paths to growth like starting a side business that can expand to something full time and later to take on additional employees. If a new regulation is necessary to achieve some positive effect, then those overheads might be justified as well, but I remain to be convinced that this is the case for most of the new rules and regulations that have come in over the decade or so that I've been doing this now. The GDPR is just the latest example of something perhaps well-intentioned but poorly implemented.
> If that's your personal belief then obviously you're entitled to your opinion, but have you seen any actual evidence that that is the case?
I can't speak for that other person but I've seen lots of evidence to that effect. I look at ~40 companies / year at the moment and a large percentage of those has issues. Usually not because of malice, mostly because of lack of resources or unfamiliarity with regulations.
Say I use a DDoS prevention service (like cloudflare). They get my user data, and also have to be under scope of GDPR as well. And since IP isn't indicative of EU citizenship status, a company had better apply GDPR to everything rather than just a subset.
In the end, this law makes a "We respect the privacy of your data" subset of providers, and provides a great way for us users to identify bad actors (Google, FB, Amazon, etc).
I'm absolutely glad to heard that (about CloudFlare).
The GDPR is becoming a "I'm doing the right thing" checkbox. At least with the European rule, we data-drained Americans can rely that these services might cost more, but we retain our rights.
Lack of will have to be scrutinized. Smaller places may make the determination based upon reasonable answers, or be malicious. Facebook/Google/Etc wouldn't exist in their current forms if there was strong privacy rules in place.
Unfortunately, so might students of history. Ask anyone in the UK who was working in the freelance or contract world when IR35 was introduced.
In that case, too, the principle was reasonable enough: there was a loophole in tax law where you could decide you're a contractor instead of an employee and pay less money despite for all other practical purposes still being an employee, and this was being actively exploited by some people.
In that case, too, the reality was that most people working in the sector probably wouldn't be challenged by the authorities, not least because the enforcers had limited resources.
But in that case, too, a given individual's status was often unclear. While some of those who were deterred or subsequently received penalties really were engaging in obvious tax avoidance, other reports described crippling penalties for people whose arrangements appeared to have been quite reasonable but to have fallen foul of someone in government's dubious interpretation.
This led to substantial amounts of time and money being collectively spent by the freelance and contractor community incorporating new legalese into contracts and paying for advice and taking out insurance policies. An entire trade body was formed primarily to deal with this threat. Even today, those of us who take on any sort of individual contract or freelance work from time to time have to be careful not to say or do certain otherwise reasonable things, or to allow others to do so, for fear of tipping the balance or giving any appearance that might be subject to challenge.
And the irony is that while the law arguably had some effect initially in getting contractors to go back to being permies if they were just using it as a tax dodge, overall it appears that IR35 has raised very little extra tax revenue for the government. It turns out that the vast majority of contractors and freelancers were operating in that fashion legitimately and continue to do so, and most enforcement actions appear to fail to the extent that the government even tries any more. Nevertheless, the rules still hang like a sword of Damocles above the whole sector.