The EU also fines companies in its own members countries for the same offenses...
If anything, given that the fines are largely based on scope of offense and capped at a percentage of turnover, the larger US companies have been getting off lightly compared to smaller companies given their settlements..
US applies US law globally. EU applies EU law in the EU - see the difference? At the very least, we as Europeans have some influence over local politics.
Not that I condone secret services collecting data in the way they do, but you're confusing state agencies collecting data with private companies collecting data.
And while I do think that state agencies nowadays have crossed most lines of what may be be deemed acceptable it should still be clear that in some cases it's necessary for a government to have the authority to do things a normal citizen doesn't (eg you're not allowed to sentence people to jail, vigilantism etc).
Also one of the articles is actually about a German court striking down one of the surveillance tactics so this just sounds like whataboutism to defend one nation and bash another. Despite all its faults, concerning spying and data-collection, the EU is likely the smallest offender out of the big players in this world.
>but you're confusing state agencies collecting data with private companies collecting data.
I'm sorry, was I the one that mentioned that the US is a hypocrite because the STATE spies on the internet? I think you're confusing my post with the one that I responded to.
>Despite all its faults, concerning spying and data-collection, the EU is likely the smallest offender out of the big players in this world.
So they're just small hypocrites instead of big ones?
>whataboutism to defend one nation and bash another
Who's defending who? If the US are hypocrites, then so are the EU. Both are spying hypocrites. The whataboutists are the ones that rush to defend Europe because they view it as a utopian ideal.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/11/french-officia...
https://phys.org/news/2018-05-german-spy-agency-tabs-interne...
https://www.thelocal.de/20200519/court-slams-german-spies-fo...
https://www.thetrumpet.com/17338-germany-can-legally-spy-on-...
https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20210708-french-spy-agency-dgsi...
https://www.france24.com/en/20130704-france-uses-vast-electr...