I disagree. I believe it is an attempt to put a stop to (mostly) US collection of EU citizen data - or at least to give EU citizens some ability to control wha

I disagree. I believe it is an attempt to put a stop to (mostly) US collection of EU citizen data - or at least to give EU citizens some ability to control what foreign entities are collecting (and monetizing) about them. The EU uses large fines as a fairly effective threat to dissuade organizations from doing things that the EU believes are not beneficial to its members. Of course it's not perfect, and of course there are political motivations as well... but Europe (and other lower corruption countries, for that matter) have grown tired with the US and its money-above-all behavior. US citizens will benefit from GDPR because it will force some change in behaviors of profit-seeking entities.