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this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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Both of your examples are governed by the same set of privacy laws, which talk about consent, purpose and necessity, but not about scale. Legislating around scale open up the inevitable legal quagmires of "what scale is acceptable" and "should activity x be counted the same as activity y to meet the scale-level defined in the law".
Scale makes a difference, but it shouldn't make a legal difference w.r.t. the legality of the activity.
What do you think the difference between normal internet traffic and a ddos attack is?
Intent is part of it as well. If you have too many people who want to use your service, you're not being attacked, you have an actual shortage of ability to service requests and need to adjust accordingly.
In this context I meant that it was the same person doing a "normal" thing at such a scale that it becomes illegal. Scale absolutely is something that can turn something from legal to illegal.
But isn't the intent and not the scale that makes it illegal? Scale only evidence for the intent.
I see what you mean. Perhaps cold calling would be a better example then, where it is illegal if it is automated.
Lack of consent and the intent to cause harm.
Ok, then how about automated cold calling vs "live" cold calling?
Falls under unwanted calls, you should be able to opt out of both (though I believe both are currently legal in the US).
You can opt out of both, but automated cold calling is straight up illegal in the UK (and it's a good thing it is).