Well, speaking just for my own businesses, we've always minimised how much personal data we use, and all the processing we do is for good reasons that are direc

Well, speaking just for my own businesses, we've always minimised how much personal data we use, and all the processing we do is for good reasons that are directly related to what we're offering as a service. This wasn't due to any legal obligations, just basic good practice in terms of security and what I consider an ethical stance regarding the privacy of our customers. I suppose this is why I'm so frustrated by this whole issue. I have a lot of sympathy for your argument that some businesses exploit personal data in ways we might well agree are abusive, and that something needed to be done to curb that. But as someone who does try to do the right thing both ethically and legally, this is just another set of regulations that is going to cause compliance overheads for my own businesses while offering little if any real benefit to anyone in our case. Meanwhile, if the risk of significant enforcement action against smaller businesses really is low, the door is open for competitors to take their chances and gain an advantage over us, particularly if they're not in the EU themselves. So it also seems to be a case of no good deed going unpunished.