Except that Gmail and Facebook are US companies. I tend to think that using a belgian/czech/italian (you get the idea) website, my data couldn't be easily expor

Except that Gmail and Facebook are US companies. I tend to think that using a belgian/czech/italian (you get the idea) website, my data couldn't be easily exported/sold outside the EU. I am currently building a data crunching company in the EU. I chose, both from a legal and marketing standpoint, not to export any of my (customers') data outside of EU. In fact, I chose not to export any data outside of my country's borders. It simplifies (a bit) my legal paperwork, but it also serves as a marketing claim along the tune of "we are doing no evil with your data, and not putting them into the hands of anyone else".