all-in-one privacy solution":["O Proton Unlimited é uma solução única de privacidade"],"Black Friday":["Black Friday"],"No ads. Privacy by default.":["Sem anúncios. Privacidade por padrão."],"People before profits":["Pessoas acima do lucro"],"Security through transparency":["Segurança por meio da transparência"],"The best Proton Mail ${ BLACK_FRIDAY } deals":["As melhores ofertas de ${ BLACK_FRIDAY } do Proton Mail"],"The world’s only community- supported email service":["O único serviço de e-mail do mundo apoiado pela comunidade"]},"specialoffer:limited":{"${ hours } hour":["${ hours } hora","${ hours } horas"],"${ hoursLeft }, ${ minutesLeft } and ${ secondsLeft } left":["${ hoursLeft }, ${ minutesLeft }, e ${ secondsLeft } restantes"],"${ minutes } minute":["${ minutes } minuto","${ minutes } minutos"],"${ seconds } second":["${ seconds } segundo","${ seconds } segundos"],"Limited time offer":["Oferta por tempo limitado"]},"specialoffer:listitem":{"Create multiple addresses":["Crie vários endereços"],"Hide-my-email aliases":["Use aliases do hide-my-email"],"Quickly unsubscribe from newsletters":["Cancele a assinatura de newsletters rapidamente"],"Use your own domain name":["Use seu próprio nome de domínio"]},"specialoffer:logos":{"As featured in":["Destaques"]},"specialoffer:metadescription":{"Get an encrypted email that protects your privacy":["Obtenha um e-mail criptografado que proteja sua privacidade"]},"specialoffer:metatitle":{"Proton Mail Black Friday Sale - Up to 40% off":["Oferta de Black Friday do Proton Mail - Até 40% de desconto"]},"specialoffer:newmetadescription":{"Get up to 40% off Proton Mail subscriptions this Black Friday. Find great deals on our secure end-to-end encrypted email plans.":["Obtenha até 40% de desconto nas assinaturas do Proton Mail nesta Black Friday. Confira ótimas ofertas em nossos planos de e-mail seguro com criptografia de ponta a ponta."]},"specialoffer:newmetatitle":{"Proton Mail Black Friday sale | Up to 40% off secure email":["Oferta de Black Friday do Proton Mail - Até 40% de desconto no e-mail protegido"]},"specialoffer:note":{"* Billed at ${ TOTAL_SUM } for the first year":["* Com o preço de ${ TOTAL_SUM } no primeiro ano"],"*Billed at ${ TOTAL_SUM } for the first 2 years":["*Com o preço de ${ TOTAL_SUM } nos primeiros dois anos"],"30-day money-back guarantee":["Garantia de reembolso de 30 dias"],"Billed at ${ TOTAL_SUM } for the first 2 years":["Com o preço de ${ TOTAL_SUM } nos primeiros dois anos"],"Billed at ${ TOTAL_SUM } for the first year":["Com o preço de ${ TOTAL_SUM } no primeiro ano"],"You save ${ SAVE_SUM }":["Economize ${ SAVE_SUM }"]},"specialoffer:off":{"${ DISCOUNT } off":["-${ DISCOUNT }"],"${ PERCENT_OFF } off":["-${ PERCENT_OFF }"]},"specialoffer:testimonial":{"I love my ProtonMail":["Adoro ProtonMail"],"My favorite email service":["Meu serviço favorito de e-mail"],"Thanks Proton for keeping us all safe in the complicated internet universe.":["Agradecemos ao Proton por nos manter a salvo no complicado universo da internet."],"You get what you pay for. In the case of big tech, if you pay nothing, you get used. I quit using Gmail and switched to @ProtonMail":["Você recebe pelo que paga. No caso das grandes tecnologias, você se acostuma quando não paga nada. Parei de usar o Gmail e troquei para o @ProtonMail"]},"specialoffer:time":{"Days":["Dias"],"Hours":["Horas"],"Min":["Min"]},"specialoffer:title":{"And much more":["E muito mais"],"Make your inbox yours":["Deixe a caixa de entrada do seu jeito"],"Safe from trackers":["A salvo de rastreadores"],"Stay organized":["Mantenha-se organizado"],"Black Friday email deals":["Ofertas de e-mail da Black Friday"],"Don’t just take our word for it":["Não confie apenas em nossa palavra"],"Our story":["Nossa história"],"Transfer your data from Google in one click":["Transfira seus dados do Google com um clique"]},"specialoffer:tooltip":{"Access blocked content and browse privately. Includes ${ TOTAL_SERVERS }+ servers in ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES }+ countries, connect up to 10 devices, access worldwide streaming services, malware and ad-blocker, and more.":["Acesse conteúdo bloqueado e navegue com privacidade. Inclui ${ TOTAL_SERVERS } servidores em +${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES } países, conecte até 10 dispositivos, acesse serviços de streaming do mundo todo, malware e bloqueador de anúncios e muito mais."],"Easily share your calendar with your family, friends or colleagues, and view external calendars.":["Compartilhe facilmente seus calendários com amigos, familiares ou colegas e visualize calendários externos."],"Includes support for 1 custom email domain, 10 email addresses, 10 hide-my-email aliases, calendar sharing, and more.":["Inclui suporte para 1 domínio de e-mail personalizado, 10 endereços de e-mail, 10 aliases do hide-my-email, compartilhamento de calendário e muito mais."],"Includes support for 3 custom email domains, 15 email addresses, unlimited hide-my-email aliases, calendar sharing, and more.":["Inclui suporte para 3 domínios de e-mail personalizados, 15 endereços de e-mail, aliases ilimitados do hide-my-email, compartilhamento de calendário e muito mais."],"Manage up to 25 calendars, mobile apps, secured with end-to-end encryption, 1-click calendar import from Google, and more.":["Gerencie até 25 calendários, apps para dispositivos móveis, protegidos com criptografia de ponta a ponta, importação de calendário com 1 clique do Google e muito mais."]},"Status Banner":{"At the moment we are experiencing issues with the Proton VPN service":["No momento estamos enfrentando problemas com o serviço Proton VPN"],"Learn more":["Saiba mais"]},"Status banner":{"Learn more":["Saiba mais"],"Please note that at the moment we are experiencing issues with the ${ issues[0] } service.":["No momento, estamos com problemas no serviço ${ issues[0] }."],"We are experiencing issues with one or more services at the moment.":["No momento, estamos com problemas em um ou mais serviços."]},"suggestions":{"Suggestions":["Sugestões"]},"Support":{"Sub category":["Subcategoria","Subcategorias"]},"Support article":{"${ readingTime } min":["${ readingTime } min","${ readingTime } min"],"Category":["Categoria","Categorias"],"Didn’t find what you were looking for?":["Não encontrou o que procura?"],"General contact":["Contato geral"],"Get help":["Obter ajuda"],"Legal contact":["Contato jurídico"],"Media contact":["Contato de mídia"],"Partnerships contact":["Contato de parcerias"],"Reading":["Leitura"]},"Support categories":{"Browse Proton product support":["Navegar pelo suporte a produtos da Proton"]},"Support category":{"There is no article in this category yet.":["Ainda não há nenhum artigo nesta categoria."]},"Support troubleshooting":{"--- Select ---":["--- Selecionar ---"],"App version":["Versão do aplicativo"],"Browser":["Navegador"],"Check if this helps":["Confira se isso ajuda"],"Choose a category for your question":["Escolha uma categoria para sua pergunta"],"Choose a product":["Selecione um produto"],"Did this solve your issue ?":["Isso resolveu seu problema?"],"Faster assistance is just a few clicks away — please make your selections":["Assistência mais rápida está a apenas alguns cliques de distância — faça suas seleções"],"No, contact support":["Não, entrar em contato com o suporte"],"Proton account":["Conta Proton"],"Proton Bridge":["Proton Bridge"],"Proton Calendar":["Proton Calendar"],"Proton Drive":["Proton Drive"],"Proton for Business":["Proton for Business"],"Proton Mail":["Proton Mail"],"Proton Pass":["Proton Pass"],"Proton VPN":["Proton VPN"],"Thank you for your feedback":["Agradecemos pelo feedback"],"Troubleshooting":["Solução de problemas"],"What can we help with ?":["Como podemos ajudar você?"],"Yes":["Sim"]},"support_modal_search_query":{"Search query":["Consulta de pesquisa"]},"support_search_button":{"Search":["Pesquisar"]},"support_search_i_am_looking_for":{"I'm looking for":["Estou procurando"]},"SupportForm":{"For a faster resolution, please report the issue from the Bridge app: Help > Report a problem.":["Para uma resolução mais rápida, informe o problema no aplicativo Bridge: Ajuda > Comunicar um problema."],"Information":["Informações"]},"SupportForm:option":{"Account Security":["Segurança da conta"],"Contacts":["Contatos"],"Custom email domain":["Domínio de e-mail personalizado"],"Email delivery and Spam":["Entrega de e-mail e spam"],"Encryption":["Criptografia"],"Login and password":["Início de sessão e senha"],"Merge aliases and accounts":["Combinar alias e contas"],"Migrate to Proton":["Migrar para a Proton"],"Notifications":["Notificações"],"Other":["Outros"],"Plans and billing":["Planos e faturamento"],"Proton for Business":["Proton for Business"],"Sign up":["Criar conta"],"Storage":["Armazenamento"],"Users, addresses, and identities":["Usuários, endereços e identidades"]},"SupportForm:optionIntro":{"Select a topic":["Selecione um tópico"]},"swiss_baseed_feature":{"Swiss based":["Sediado na Suíça"]},"Testimonial":{"Awards":["Prêmios"],"Customers":["Clientes"],"Featured":["Em destaque"],"Go to testimonial source":["Ir para a página inicial de depoimentos"],"Reviews":["Avaliações"],"Videos":["Vídeos"]},"Text":{"Find the plan that's right for you":["Encontre o plano certo para você"],"If you need help, check out our ${ supportLink }.":["Se precisar de ajuda, confira nossa ${ supportLink }."],"The page you’re looking for might have been removed, or it could be an\nold link.":["É possível que a página que você está procurando tenha sido removida ou seja um\nlink antigo."]},"Title":{"On this page":["Nesta página"],"Related articles":["Artigos relacionados"],"Share ${ thisPage }":["Compartilhar ${ thisPage }"],"Thank you!":["Obrigado!"],"this page":["esta página"]},"Tooltip":{"More information":["Mais informações"]},"tooltip_calendar":{"Create up to 20 custom & shareable encrypted calendars. On top of that, add up to 5 calendars from friends, family, colleagues, and organizations.":["Crie até 20 calendários compartilháveis personalizados e criptografados. Além disso, é possível adicional até 5 calendários de amigos, família, colegas e organizações."]},"tooltip_vpn":{"Access blocked content and browse privately. Includes ${ TOTAL_SERVERS }+ servers in ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES }+ countries, highest VPN speed, ${ TOTAL_VPN_CONNECTIONS } VPN connections, worldwide streaming services, malware and ad-blocker, and more.":["Acesse conteúdo bloqueado e navegue com privacidade. Inclui mais de ${ TOTAL_SERVERS } servidores em mais de +${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES } países, VPN com a mais alta velocidade, ${ TOTAL_VPN_CONNECTIONS } conexões VPN, serviços de streaming no mundo todo, malware e bloqueador de anúncios e muito mais."],"Access blocked content and browse privately. Includes ${ TOTAL_SERVERS }+ servers in ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES }+ countries, highest VPN speed, 10 VPN connections, worldwide streaming services, malware and ad-blocker, and more.":["Acesse conteúdo bloqueado e navegue com privacidade. Inclui mais de ${ TOTAL_SERVERS } servidores em mais de +${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES } países, VPN com a mais alta velocidade, 10 conexões VPN, serviços de streaming no mundo todo, malware e bloqueador de anúncios e muito mais."]},"version_history_label":{"Version history":["Histórico de versões"]},"version_history_tooltip":{"Store up to ${ versionHistoryNumber } versions of each file for up to ${ years } years":["Armazene até ${ versionHistoryNumber } versões de cada arquivo por até ${ years } anos"]},"vpn_features_link":{"View VPN plans":["Visualizar planos de VPN"]},"vpn_features_useCase":{"Access blocked content and browse privately":["Acesse conteúdo bloqueado e navegue com privacidade"]}}},"unleashApi":"https://account.proton.me/api"};
// We need to import data (the framework context) from the server
// This Astro feature with define:vars works well but creates an inline script
// So we can't directly import the initFramework helper, we have to store the context
window.frameworkContext = frameworkContext;
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In the first seven months of 2023, Big Tech companies have been fined nearly $2.34 billion for privacy violations and abusing their monopoly power. Since the European Union introduced the GDPR in 2018, these companies have been fined upwards of $7 billion.
These are massive amounts, but they don’t seem to have had any appreciable effect on Big Tech’s behavior. That’s because these fines, massive as they are, represent little more than an inconvenience to these companies.
It seems that Google, Facebook, and others view these fines as the price of doing business and will continue to pay these astronomical amounts if it means they can continue abusing your data and crushing alternative business models.
To truly defend our privacy and make the internet a level playing field, we need regulations with teeth, which means we need even bigger fines.
Big Tech’s cash on hand dwarfs their fines
It might be hard to believe a company wouldn’t care about paying over a billion dollars, but it’s easy to understand once you see how much cash on hand these companies have.
Cash on hand refers to a company’s cash after it has paid all its costs. It’s essentially a measure of how much free money a company has (or can easily obtain by selling liquid assets) at any given time.
There are a couple of things to note here. First, all of the highest fines have originated from the EU because they have aggressive anti-monopoly policies, and the GDPR provides a framework for fines for companies that violate their users’ privacy. Second, none of these fines caused any discomfort for these companies.
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, received the largest fine of any Big Tech company, butit could pay that fine a staggering 28 times before it ran out of cash. Microsoft could pay its biggest fine an incredible 1,738 times before it depleted its cash.
Big Tech can pay off most fines with a day’s worth of profit
Cash on hand can be deceiving — it can be inflated if a company recently sold off an asset or dip if a company invests heavily in research and development or infrastructure. This isn’t the case for most Big Tech companies. They’ve steadily carried large cash on hand reserves for years.
Still, revenue is a more accurate depiction of a company’s size and profitability. We can also look at how long it would take each of these companies to make enough revenue to pay off one of these fines.
These numbers are almost too big to comprehend, so it might be easier to benchmark them with how long it takes a company to generate enough revenue to pay off a $1 billion fine.
Revenue earned per hour (based on 2022 figures)
How long it takes to earn $1 billion (based on 2022 figures)
Apple
$45.01 million
22 hours
Alphabet (parent company of Google)
$32.29 million
1 day and 7 hours
Meta (Facebook)
$13.31 million
3 days and 3 hours
Amazon
$58.67 million
17 hours
Microsoft
$22.63 million
1 day and 20 hours
As this table demonstrates, Big Tech companies won’t notice any fine that’s less than $1 billion — in fact, Apple probably made enough revenue to cover its recent $8 million fine(new window) in less time than it took to finish reading the verdict.
Cumulatively, Big Tech companies make enough revenue to pay all the fines they’ve received throughout 2023 ($2.34 billion) in less than a week (six days and five hours).
Big fines require political will
If regulatory fines are meant to signal to companies that they need to change their behavior, then they must be big enough to get those companies’ attention. We know people want to tell these companies to stop collecting their data without their knowledge or permission and stop using their market dominance to box out competitors. Governments are attempting to deliver that message, but it isn’t getting through because the fines are tolerable.
This isn’t a surprise — the GDPR allows for fines up to 4% of annual global turnover (otherwise known as annual revenue). The maximum fines Big Tech could face under the GDPR are as follows:
Company
Maximum fine allowed under the GDPR (based on 2022 revenue)
Apple
$15.77 billion
Alphabet (parent company of Google)
$11.31 billion
Meta (Facebook)
$4.66 billion
Amazon
$20.56 billion
Microsoft
$7.93 billion
These figures might get Big Tech’s attention, but it comes down to the data protection agencies’ (DPAs) willingness to issue maximum fines. That’s never been on the table for a number of reasons, including the complexity of these cases, the armies of lawyers Big Tech employs to obfuscate and delay proceedings, and certain countries’ desire to maintain their “business friendly” reputation.
National DPAs have conflicting interests. They’re charged with protecting their citizens’ privacy rights, but if they adopt business-friendly, laissez-faire interpretations of the GDPR, their home country can attract Big Tech headquarters and the billions of dollars of investments and jobs that come with them.
For example, many Big Tech companies, including Meta and Apple, have chosen Ireland for their EU headquarters because of its favorable tax scheme, meaning Ireland’s DPA has an outsize impact when regulating and punishing Big Tech companies. While the Irish DPA did issue one of the largest GDPR fines ever to Meta ($1.3 billion), it only did so after 10 years of litigation by privacy advocates, such as NOYB(new window).
Afterward, NOYB’s founder, Max Schrems, had this comment(new window), “The Irish regulator has done everything to avoid this decision, but was consistently overturned by the European Courts and institutions. It is kind of absurd that the record fine will go to Ireland — the EU Member State that did everything to ensure that this fine is not issued”.
Who is in charge – Big Tech or elected governments?
The EU has noticed that the DPAs of Ireland and Luxembourg — coincidentally countries that host the headquarters of many large and rich tech companies — have become bottlenecks, slowing down and watering down GDPR investigations. To ensure the DPAs take their mandate to protect people’s privacy seriously, the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, is taking action.
Starting in January 2023, the Commission increased its scrutiny(new window) of DPAs, now requiring updates every two months on every DPA’s data-protection investigations. If the DPAs don’t comply with the Commission’s directives, they could be taken to the European Court of Justice.
This fight is important because Big Tech currently decides how much of your data is collected and how it is used. If we want an internet that respects people’s privacy, the fastest way to get there is to convince Big Tech that abusing people’s data is not only wrong, it’s unprofitable. Big Tech’s profits dwarf the penalties they’re paying. Why would a company jeopardize billions in revenue to avoid paying a fine it can cover with what it earns in a day?
It seems Big Tech’s current approach to these fines is to treat them as permits they have to pay to continue abusing people’s data, their armies of lawyers seemingly much more concerned about avoiding and delaying enforcement of the GDPR rather than complying with it. The EU and DPAs seem to recognize they must step up their approach to win compliance. We hope this inspires other countries, namely the US, to start taking this seriously as well.
But it’s not all on regulators’ shoulders. We, the people, can act as well. While big fines might finally get Big Tech’s attention, there’s one thing these companies are always paying attention to — user numbers. The only thing that could drive Big Tech to reconsider its business model is if it sees tens or hundreds millions of people leaving for privacy-focused alternatives.
Until then, these companies will try to monetize as much data as they can, happy to pay the minor fines they receive. Also, in the time it took you to read this article, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft made about $28.65 million.
Secure, seamless communication is the foundation of every business. As more
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Monitoring for cr
On the subject of cybersecurity, one term that often comes up is brute force
attack. A brute force attack is any attack that doesn’t rely on finesse, but
instead uses raw computing power to crack security or even the underlying
encryption.
In this a
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has become notorious as
the legal justification allowing federal agencies like the NSA, CIA, and FBI to
perform warrantless wiretaps, which sweep up the data of hundreds of thousands
of US citi
In response to the growing number of data breaches, Proton Mail offers a feature
to paid subscribers called Dark Web Monitoring. Our system checks if your
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Your email address is your online identity, and you share it whenever you create
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Data breaches
Our mission at Proton is to help usher in an internet that protects your privacy
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Today we’re taking another step in this direction with the launch of our open
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