Another way to look at it is that some US tech companies think they can treat laws as an inconvenience to brush aside. In the USA corporate capture of regulator

Another way to look at it is that some US tech companies think they can treat laws as an inconvenience to brush aside. In the USA corporate capture of regulators and political lobbying have reached the levels whereby they are unable to tackle these behemoths, however the EU is still operating as an efficient law enforcer? And maybe the EU does lack an illegal data collecting advertiser disguised as address book, but that is not the only kind of technical innovation possible.