GDPR is a direct reaction to large American corporations (Facebook, Google, Microsoft, etc.) not doing the right thing off their own backs for European users.

GDPR is a direct reaction to large American corporations (Facebook, Google, Microsoft, etc.) not doing the right thing off their own backs for European users. They should make data collection opt-in not opt-out. It’s very hard to “not give data out in the first place”. You don’t have to give it out, they’ll do anything they can to take it from you without asking. I’ve recently had to email Airbnb to cancel my account becaue I don’t want to be tracked by Facebook and Airbnb put that tracking on every page logged in or not. Airbnb’s view is that I have to create a Facebook account and then set privacy settings there. They refuse to honour Do Not Track headers. Airbnb won’t even let me login to delete my account. Instead I have email them and hope they’ll actually delete my data and account. When you have companies making things as difficult as possible for users and using sophisticated tax avoidance to crush local competition on price you need legislation with teeth.