[icebraining]

Europeans aren't inherently better: if Facebook and Google were companies founded in Germany or France who knows if GDPR would exist.

The Data Protection Directive, which the GDPR merely extends and updates, is older than Google and almost as old as the web itself, and was an attempt to unify even older national laws regarding personal data. It's not a reaction to having "lost" the privacy-eroding race.

[andrei_says_]

European politicians don’t have to spend 70% of their time begging corporations for campaign donation. I believe this is much more of a determining factor.