> although (and this may be the American in me speaking) I am perhaps a bit skeptical about just how much most consumers care relative to elites in the media.
The difference in general between EU and USA: in the EU it's seen as a good thing to protect people even when they don't understand why. In the USA, excluding weird outliers like "careful, fresh coffee is hot" it's not.
> in the EU it's seen as a good thing to protect people even when they don't understand why
Use of the word "elite" by the author encapsulates this mentality. What if they do understand why and still don't care? Or at least, to speak from my perspective, what if they do understand why but also understand that the approach used makes things worse? It is so disappointing watching so many praise the intent of the law instead of the practicalities that I wonder where real understanding is lost. Recognition of a problem, and even recognition of what might work in some idealistic situation, is not enough to be construed as understanding the situation.
The US assumes people are capable of understanding things for themselves- my grocery store tracks my purchases in exchange for coupons and discounts, I feel it's worth it. FB holds my family's pictures hostage to show me ads, not worth it. Simple.
The EU also seems to assume that if someone is making money, someone else is being damaged- that every economic exchange is unfair. I don't really think that's true- it's not that Google or FB is taking massive advantage of me, they are taking a teeny-tiny bit of advantage of a massive number of people.
Maybe I should be more specific to making money online- but nobody collects data that I didn't give them. The tone of EU laws is that instead they 'took' that data from me.
This assumes that people understand what data is gathered. Which is the whole informed consent that is required by the GDPR.
You can still say "I want you to take my data and I'm fine with it" as long as the site made a good effort of explaining what and how they are using it.
Just an anecdote, but people always reacted with shock when I tell them what information is gathered.
This information was always public though, just no one cared. 'Information wants to be free' is a universal law, not just for governments, universities and corporations.
The difference in general between EU and USA: in the EU it's seen as a good thing to protect people even when they don't understand why. In the USA, excluding weird outliers like "careful, fresh coffee is hot" it's not.