Are EU firms being scrutinized as much as American ones? Are these GDPR penalties on American businesses a protectionist measure by the EU?
You can see it here: https://www.enforcementtracker.com/
If the EU was host to surveillance advertising I’m sure the narrative would be that companies should provide services cheaply instead for the social good. While you can have whatever opinions you want on invasive tracking tech, the reality is that the EU never had their share of profits from it and have always been more critical of US based companies. Yes they’re protectionist.
Edit: it can be good for consumers and good for national protectionism. I’m not questioning if it’s good for consumers but it is definitely good for nationalism.
The issue here is whether Apple's pivot to services and advertising revenue will corrupt their privacy protections. Similarly, we can wonder if EU privacy protections will vanish if a future adtech unicorn gets born in France or Germany.
Considering the way they treat FB data collection vs their own data collection… I’d guess yes. Apple has a not-so-subtle growth in ads that we’ve been hearing rumors about, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a suit from Eg. Facebook. Apple ads will focus on app content - which the biggest competition used to facebook.
> Similarly, we can wonder if EU privacy protections will vanish if a future adtech unicorn gets born in France or Germany
I think the bigger likelihood is that this cements the reality that no new ad-tech giants will emerge. If you ban geese, you’ll never get a golden one.
All dealing with personal data, not just tech. Hotels, hospitals, retailers, banks, government organizations, insurance brokers, education institutions, and so on.