[JumpCrisscross]

> If they're acting so antagonistically against GDPR maybe throwing some people in jail will do the trick

This is how you get a legal code like America's, where a cop and prosecutor can put almost anyone in jail with the flimsiest excuse.

I understand the impulse. But the solution to bad enforcement isn't ratcheting up penalties. It's increasing enforcement.

[lmm]

> This is how you get a legal code like America's, where a cop and prosecutor can put almost anyone in jail with the flimsiest excuse.

Then how come America, with its strict procedural safeguards, has that legal environment where people now feel unsafe even talking to cops, whereas many European countries with a more common-sense, less rules-lawyery approach (like the big fines handed out to a lot of privacy-violating tech companies lately) have a much friendlier culture with fewer obvious abuses?

[raverbashing]

You are correct.

Usually what I find is that the American companies/people usually try to follow the "bare" letter of the law, where Europeans need to follow the spirit, as this is how it is "usually" enforced.

And while the former might let you get away with "one weird trick" the latter usually leaves more margin to interpretation which can be both a blessing and a curse.