It’s always been my opinion that GDPR and some of the other European regulations are simply trade tariffs draped in a more publicly appealing disguise, given the only tangible outcome they’ve achieved is extracting money from foreign companies. This isn’t an opinion that’s ever been welcomed on HN though.
They apply equally to EU companies as US companies. They're very much not a trade tariff.
Actually US companies have an advantage as it's much easier for them to just ignore the laws / they have certain ways of getting around the laws that do not apply to EU companies.
Go look at the enforcement statistics and tell me again how equally they apply. Even if you presume there is no enforcement bias whatsoever, it’s still going to act as a trade tariff due to the enormous trade deficit the EU has in regards to digital services.
OK I have experience here: US companies are far more likely to break the law. It's extremely hard to get US based CTOs in particular to understand the GDPR, they literally ignore it. Then stuff happens and they get in trouble.
What makes it worse: the GDPR itself is a great example of cultural differences: Americans are happy to eat bleached chicken and for all of their lives and personal data be there to make big companies lots of money. Europeans very much do not think like that. Which is good, different strokes for different folks.
