[_m7bj]

I have been habitually sending "I have finished using your service, could you please delete my account" emails since around 2008 or so.

Prior to GDPR, 9 replies in 10 would be polite but dismissive responses, basically telling me that I'm making an unreasonably burdensome request.

Post GDPR, everyone responds with a message stating they have followed my request in a timely fashion.

Am I disappointing that GDPR has not fined Facebook into oblivion? Yeah. I was hoping for global scale schadenfreude as much as the next person.

However, GDPR has fundamentally normalized the notion that peoples relationships with companies need not be permanent, and that submitting to eternal spam is not the accepted price of buying a flight online. GDPR has established in law that it's totally reasonable for people to not want to give their local gym an iris scan in order to enter the gym and work out, and it is indeed the gym owner who's the arsehole in that situation. This grants leverage against the arsehole.

In that respect, it's been a smashing success. There is much we could improve on, but on the statement "it only benefited the lawyers"...hard disagree.