

Google Analytics could be banned in Norway - drickster
http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/20/google-analytics-could-be-banned-in-norway/

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ThJ
Norwegian here. This article is missing some _major_ context. The Norwegian
Data Protection Bureau merely stated that it believes the Norwegian Revenue
Service and Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund are using Google Analytics
illegally. These are high security Internet services used by almost every
citizen in Norway.

The reason that Norway is implementing the directive is not because it simply
feels like it, but because this EU directive has been implemented in the
European Economic Area and not only the EU. The EEA is basically a semi-EU
membership where a country has to implement EU directives in return for some
EU trade benefits. We're in it because, although Norway voted no to an EU
membership in 1992, the government was a big fan of the idea, so it sort of
snuck us in through the back door anyway.

My angle on the Analytics issue is that I think it's sad that major Norwegian
government agencies are apparently not capable of or willing to develop or
install their own statistics tools. I think it says a lot about the state of
the Norwegian technology sector that it can't seem to develop its own
solutions for its small 5 million population. The government contracted the
development of the online tax form system (Altinn) to Accenture, and it still
crashed spectacularly under load.

I imagine that large American cities have these types of systems deployed
routinely and uneventfully.

(On that note... I really want to work in Silicon Valley. There is no place
like it anywhere in Europe. A major Valley company has been doing phone
interviews with me, but they're dragging their feet, as they'd have to deploy
me somewhere in Europe for a year before they could transfer me, as I don't
have a college degree, and it looks like their legal team isn't willing to
consider that option, even if the management is.

I speak fluent English. I'm from a country that's not unlike Canada. I
understand American values more than most. I can go to the US on a
business/vacation trip for 3 months without applying for a visa. I can
contribute actual value. If I wanted to mooch off the state, Norway is
actually much better for that. But nope. I can't live and work in the United
States. Go figure!)

