> without even a vote I’m not sure I follow what kind of “vote” you mean here. The legal framework behind the decision has been in discussion since at least 10

> without even a vote I’m not sure I follow what kind of “vote” you mean here. The legal framework behind the decision has been in discussion since at least 10 years ago, and most EU countries and the EU parliaments are democratically elected. The lawmaking progress in the EU parliament also is very open to public scrutiny and feedback, and the privacy laws went through it. This all supports the idea that the right to privacy online is pretty much a core value supported by most of the EU population, one which they have been supporting through their votes and participation in the law-making for many years. And if your implied suggestion was that the business model of company X (and whatever benefit they may provide through this model) is a more important vote than the basic value of privacy, or that the issue of cost was not brought to the table enough times for people to understand the trade-offs, then I guess my understanding of how democracy works is different than yours.