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ffsm8 | on: Fastmail offers EU data region
> your data can still be forcibly pulled and often without you being aware that this happened

as a german i feel the urge to point out that this technically also applies to european companies... With more hurdles for the US, but still technically applicable

jacquesm | parent | next
That's true but the EU still has a - mostly - functioning legal system. See 'Schrems' and other lawsuits that came out as they should have.
perks_12 | root | parent
Take a look at how they play with regards to chat control. The EU is just the same corrupt BS like D.C., only with a lot more virtue signaling.
jacquesm | root | parent | next
Sorry, I don't agree with that. The amount of corruption in the USA right now is simply off the scale.
sneak | root | parent | next
Nah, it’s just more visible. It’s not that much of a sea change. And it’s ridiculously naive to pretend that the major countries in Europe don’t have their own mechanisms to regularly and effectively bypass any democratic inconveniences when necessary. They regularly push through things that no constituent would ever want or vote for.
FireBeyond | root | parent | next
Meanwhile the President sits in the Oval Office and says, in a televised interview, with absolutely no shame, that all of his kids and family are insider trading, all the time.
ffsm8 | root | parent
Meanwhile in Germany insider trading is completely legal for politicians. Well, not insider trading - but it's definition supposedly doesn't extend beyond internal business information.

(At least that's what people keep telling me, im not a lawyer)

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LastTrain | root | parent | next
Nah, it’s worse now than ever.
jacquesm | root | parent
You're right, just the other day our MP lined his pockets to the tune of a couple of billion, pumped his shitcoin, tipped off his friends about about the stock market movements he was going to cause, sent a couple of good deals to his kids and threatened war on a couple of countries just to please his buddies. And that's just the last couple of months... /s
FireBeyond | root | parent
Oh, and will sell you access to his market-moving tweets for $100K a month, so you know and can get your stock trades set before the plebes do.
drnick1 | root | parent
It's not, you're just watching CNN too much.
usernomdeguerre | root | parent
or maybe you're watching Fox News too much?
inigyou | root | parent | next
Chat control 1 or 2?
izacus | root | parent | next
A parliamentary process where a law is being proposed, amended and voted upon isn't "corruption".

Just because you disagree with a law, that doesn't make it "corruption" - it does make you an authoritarian that attacks democracy as soon as other people don't vote like you want.

inigyou | root | parent
Chat control 1 was rejected by the parliament and then passed anyway because parliament doesn't matter. Hardly democratic.
izacus | root | parent
That's a lie - chat control was amended and then passed via parliament vote.

Please stop spreading fabrications - even when you dislike the result. That's fascist behaviour.

sscaryterry | root | parent
Not nearly the same thing. Trump and his family have made billions. I cannot say the same of von der Leyen.
carlosjobim | root | parent
Which of those two leaders were elected by the people?
beezlewax | root | parent | next
The European Parliament is elected by vote and has to ratify the chosen members of the EU council. The president of the council included.
eastbound | root | parent
No, he has a point. There are various degrees of democracy, between direct and many degrees of indirection. VDL is certainly not a good level of democracy:

- Elections are so rare (every 5 years) and encompass so many huge life-altering choices (VDL being one of the criteria only) that it's not democratic. The Swiss vote every important law, like "Should we buy fighter jets".

- De facto, party health is part of democracy (look at the Rwanda: It is absolutely possible to have a genocide made by democracies, and it is in fact more frequent than dictatorships) and network effects have made that European parties don't represent the people's will,

- Europe dispatches money to countries that need convincing, like Scottland, while wearing the mature members' citizen to the bone. We can't even have decent roads or internet here, while newcomers are super-happy to join ("I'm happy because Europe brought wealth and economic development!!!" - yeah look in 20 years). Money flushing around Europe trying to bribe citizens groups into staying, which makes opposition impossible. The EU is too chicken to let citizen vote every 20 years on whether we should stay in Europe, because then answer would be a big NO.

- The kill switch didn't even work, countries can't leave, or there is retaliation. Not only UK but France voted against the new treaties in 2005, the president still signed them.

The EU is the most lazy level of democracy. It's a knee-jerk reaction to say that VDL can be removed from office by the citizen.

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Barrin92 | root | parent | next
I'm not sure what that's supposed to imply because if Ursula von der Leyen manages to be less corrupt without being elected by the people that has some uncharitable consequences for the quality of the American electorate, I think HL Mencken had something to say on this
jacquesm | root | parent
Technically, the US president is also not elected by the people but by the electors, which in many ways is comparable to how the EU elected the EU Commission President.
izacus | root | parent | next
Certainly Van Der Leyen.

I suggest you show up for next EU election if you don't like the option.

Silhouette | root | parent | next
How should EU citizens vote at that next election if they are unhappy with von der Leyen's actions as President of the European Commission in order to remove her if enough other voters agree?
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krick | root | parent
Clearly you have no idea how the head of EC is chosen. Because of the two only Trump was actually elected by the people.
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ywain | root | parent
What's your point? You'd rather have a democratically elected but corrupt leader than an appointed but honest one?
usernomdeguerre | parent | next
True, I think the calculus is more about who you think is more trustworthy than what tools they have to damage you.
throwawayffffas | parent | next
I am almost positive things are not the way they were and requests for data access especially if the subjects background is "suspect" are more highly scrutinized.

And as the Americans are choosing to interfere in European domestic politics and trample their own laws and constitution the more scrutiny their requests will get.

slow_typist | parent | next
Especially if European companies have an office and significant share of customers in the US.
yieldcrv | parent
europeans like it more when just european governments are doing it