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Comment by Nextgrid

5 years ago

This would raise many problems: do you pay based on how long you store the data for? Does derived data qualify too (otherwise you can keep the original data for a minute, derive an intermediate data format out of it, then discard the original)? Do you charge for how long is spent processing that data (so they just throw more CPU at it so the data is only processed for milliseconds)?

I don't think this is a solution. Not only is this hard to implement & enforce, but this still ends up legalizing the unwanted processing of consumer's data as long as the processors can pay the fee. Those users should be allowed to decline regardless of how much the processor is willing to pay.

Those questions would be addressed in the actual legislation. Yes, enforcement becomes the tough point. I actually suspect that might be why it makes sense. Companies would be incentivized to not keep data around any longer than they need it. And companies like facebook would have incentives to decrease the size of their networks as a mitigation from class actions. They might even restructure to match a franchise model where you only ever interact with your “local” FB. That local FB would be much easier to police both within FB and externally.