American social network refuses to send me my personal data and respect GDPR

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7 points·bluefin··6 comments

To clarify: This is not my post. Just found it on reddit earlier today and wanted to share as it may be of interest to some users here.

As much as I agree with GDPR, American companies are not subject to EU laws.

I don't think that's correct. If you do business in another country, you're subject to the laws of that country. More specifically in the GDPR case, if you're doing business with an EU citizen, who has the rights granted in the GDPR, you're obligated to respect those rights or not do business with that EU citizen (or any other).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/12/04/ye...

While this might be the legal reality (I'm no expert), what exactly is the EU's recourse should a US business be found in violation?

If you have a US business, hosted with US servers, using US banks, accepting payment in US dollars, with no intention to operate an office or hire employees in Europe, what's the EU going to do about a GDPR violation? How does it enforce and collect a fine?

Again, I'm no expert, but it doesn't seem to me like the EU can do anything in that circumstance.

I imagine that the company basically becomes a no-show defendant in a hearing, and gets a fine. That fine probably compounds with each grievance.

Employees of that company may then be arrested if they enter Europe?

This is what I meant. There's no enforcement of EU laws in the US. (Thankfully.)

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