Good luck making any money if you can’t show relevant ads to users. But who cares about business owners. Certainly not the EU.
Snark aside, if you can't make money without stalking users, maybe you shouldn't be in business.
The issue folks have is many users if given a choice, will take the free service (instagram / tiktok / free gmail) in return for being tracked if they are given a choice.
Feel free to start up the business that doesn't do this (protonmail etc). But MAJOR services are built the other direction (ie, billions of users worldwide).
Yes, this would be covered by the GDPR and for good reason. If I join tonight's waiting list and provide a phone number in case they suddenly have a table become available I do not want that phone number to be reused for marketing spam down the line.
> The issue folks have is many users if given a choice, will take the free service [...] in return for being tracked if they are given a choice.
Apple's recent App Tracking Transparency stats suggest that when given a free choice, only 4% of users actually opt-in: https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/05/07/only-4-of-ios-use...
So clearly, when given the choice, most people would rather not be tracked. The problem the GDPR is trying to address is that people are not given the choice.
> But MAJOR services are built the other direction
There were plenty of businesses in the past that were built on basics that we now deem harmful. Back in the early 20th century, it was legal to sell radioactive water and market it as a miracle cure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor
Society has since determined this is harmful and outlawed that. The same thing is currently happening with environmental pollution, and the GDPR is trying to do the same for noxious business models on the web.
I mean I will still block it, but most people wouldn't.