[_petronius]

You're bringing your US-American assumptions about politics and left vs right into the context of European politics where they are a poor fit. The world is not Democrats vs Republicans.

There is no GDPR debate or fight: it's done, it was done six years ago, and the only people pushing back are American companies who are unhappy that Europeans don't want their data hoovered up by corporations they have no control or oversight of, for who-knows-what purpose.

[drdaeman]

Sorry, but do you want to say that EU has no left and right in politics (parent post did not mention Democrats or Republicans)? Or that everyone in the EU is unanimously happy with GDPR? Seriously, if a law's getting applied only after a long while it's passed - it's not unheard of to have a debate as people start to actually care.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that parent example is not US-specific at all and is applicable to just about any country where there are people that learn toward different beliefs (that "direct consequence of your assumptions about human nature" part of the post)

The assumptions may be wrong, but that was generally constructive.

[_petronius]

First of all, come on, obviously I'm not saying there are left and right in EU politics (and in the national politics of EU countries), but what those left and rights are concerned with don't match 1:1 with the issues under debate in American politics.

Partly because there is a much broader political spectrum -- Democrats in the US roughly line up with, for example, the Conservatives in the UK or the CDU in Germany -- but also because it's just a different set of issues and preoccupations.

I do think it's fair to say that within the EU there is a general consensus about the importance of data privacy, and I also don't detect any resistance to the GDPR in general, or any question that it should be repealed. (That was partly sealed by the revelation of US spying on Europeans a few years ago, which hasn't been forgotten.)

Second, if I'm honest, I find the whole "assumptions about human nature" is a bunch of hokum and quite the opposite of constructive. Nothing about GDPR has to do with "obedience to technocratic elites", and is in fact about rejecting the ability of institutions which are not democratically accountable to gather personal data and monitor people, or make decisions that affect their daily lives, without their informed knowledge and consent.

GDPR is not a "power grab" (hah!), it's about distributing the power that comes from control of information more evenly. The EU has a lot of flaws, but this is one of the most democratic and equalizing bits of regulation that they've produced, and frankly the concessions it makes to large companies are huge.

I don't accept the argument that to be in favor of this I must be in favor of USSR-style totalitarianism. If anything, the inefficient planned economy of VC-funded startups, with their cults of personality around founders, that want to collect data and influence populations with impunity are the petty dictators of the 21st century. Personal rights should trump the rights of corporations, and I am deeply suspicious of people who would equate the two.

But that's all making a mountain out of a molehill: most of what GDPR does is harmonize existing regulation across the EU to make it easier for companies within and outside of Europe to do business here, adds enforcement teeth to the regulatory agencies and harmonizes the penalties, and sets out in actually rather specific detail what is required to be compliant, while giving everyone years to implement this regulation.

If people don't want to comply with GDPR and just block all EU users, then that will make the internet a nicer place for us, so by all means go ahead!

[repolfx]

You probably haven't looked then. Despite assumptions elsewhere, I'm from Europe and still live there for example. The idea that everyone loves GDPR is naive. Only today I was working next to someone who was trying to figure out how it applied to her (tiny) business, and getting annoyed by the process. She's just copy/pasting the contents of an email she received into her own mail copy to avoid having to do extra work.

Nothing about GDPR has to do with "obedience to technocratic elites"

No? I think you missed by points then.

The GDPR was created, is enforced by and serves the interests of regulators. It specifies so little it is essentially a direct grant of power to those people - they can do whatever they want within its framework and that framework allows nearly anything.

As for 'technocratic elites', did you see political parties campaigning on this issue? I sure as heck did not. Right now the hot topics in European politics are immigration, terrorism and economic growth. Not data protection.

is in fact about rejecting the ability of institutions which are not democratically accountable to gather personal data and monitor people

Of course companies are democratically accountable - outside of monoplies (rare), you can just not trade with them if you don't like their data handling practices.