I sense a lot of misplaced patriotism here, with many comments reeking of almost outrage: "how dare the EU tell us what to do on our soil! We are Americans damn

I sense a lot of misplaced patriotism here, with many comments reeking of almost outrage: "how dare the EU tell us what to do on our soil! We are Americans damnit, this makes us better than other people and allows us to selectively ignore other laws!" Well, the USA has been doing this to other countries for decades. Your failure to self regulate the protection of the huge volumes of personal data you like to collect plus your governments love to hoover this up has led to this. Deal with it, and be glad that at least someone is legislating this crazy situation we find ourselves in.