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It would be nice, if it would be that easy. See my answer here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10055866 Can you name examples, where big corporations got "Serious" penalties for privacy issues? I don't know any. I only know, that in Germany, we always say, how important the issue is, but at least under our current government, privacy issues and the officers are laughed at by the big politicians. They might say different, but that is the reality (in Germany, everything is double-correct, until you look under the carpet!). The trouble is, besides the juristic impact here, when you go on this level, it gets political and many influential German politicians don't want to mess with the US and with big corporations (their motto: "Sozial ist, was Arbeit schafft!"), particularly in the current government! And don't think, that the EU is an independent entity -- the German government likes to make it look as such, but in reality, the EU does nothing, what the governments of the most influential countries do not want. (I also don't think, that the current German government will change soon -- it is a mess!) |
Not yet, but I would argue that's because organisations like Google and Facebook have changed their behaviour when challenged to avoid things going that far.
However, Europe has imposed heavy fines in the past on the likes of Microsoft, and various nations in Europe have also formally investigated and taken legal action against major tech firms in relation to privacy concerns. For example, see http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-06/facebook-p..., which is about an ongoing investigation.