I see the "spirit of the law" and "intent" being thrown around here. Elizabeth Denham, UK's information commissioner in charge of data protection enforcement,

I see the "spirit of the law" and "intent" being thrown around here. Elizabeth Denham, UK's information commissioner in charge of data protection enforcement, had this to say: "Having larger fines is useful but I think fundamentally what I'm saying is it's scaremongering to suggest that we're going to be making early examples of organisations that breach the law or that fining a top whack is going to become the norm. Our office will be more lenient on companies that have shown awareness of the GDPR and tried to implement it, when compared to those that haven't made any effort." Now, whether you trust large bureaucratic institutions to use elastic, broadly defined, excessive powers granted to them wisely, applying self-restraint for the general good, is a function of your general political leaning and life experience more than legal nuance, I suppose.