It's scary to some people but not others, so is the purpose of GDPR to spur a discussion on the scope of technology and privacy tradeoffs or to actively slow the pace of personal data collection?
I think there has been a lack of reasonable and measured discussion about this issue, it's very polarized as with most things.
Just in looking at ambiguous and deceptive labeling in the grocery stores (US), I am seeing what seems like a loosening of ethical norms. I can't quantify it, but I am feeling like the ideology that regulations are always bad and the market can be trusted to maintain good quality products is giving people license to try anything that is technically legal to make incrementally more money. Despite the vast number of regulations that exist, I think people are identifying loopholes in both the law and human psychology at an ever increasing rate, and regulations that exist are inadequate.
This doesn't mean, of course, that more regulations can fix things, but I think the world is changing, possibly for the worse, while some people say we should remain calm and do nothing, because nothing unusual is happening.
Edit: I am not suggesting people are becoming less ethical than in the past "just because" - I'm suggesting information technology is letting smart people increasingly subvert norms about transparency, because once you can quantify the effect of your customers' cognitive biases, competition makes it imperative to exploit them. Even if you don't realize what you're doing, you do enough A/B testing and it's automatic, I should think.
That's a good simple explanation IMO. If it sounds scary, maybe it is.