The laws intention was totally fine, and if browsers and sites e.g. would have implemented it with a more DNT like approach or just a default opt-in than annoying opt-out approach everyone could have benefitted, but sure AD companies and everybody else snapped in and needed to annoy and show everybody how bad and unreasonable this whole bullshit implementation now is (which it really is, goals achieved on all sides - except for customers, which are still mostly tracked and now also annoyed..)

> Can you tell me how GDPR has improved European lives over say a New Yorker?

My spam disappeared overnight. There was a flood of "click here to give consent" emails a little before GDPR came into force, and then radio silence. I now only get the low-effort botnet viagra emails that are trivial to identify and catch, and even their amount has dwindled to only 5 this month. I guess most of them fail SPF/DKIM/etc tests and don't get delivered at all.

Same with snail mail. I used to get a pretty large pile of all kinds of ads every week, now I get only invoices, official notices and postcards from friends.

In online services like Youtube, I don't have to click through menus to opt-out of tracking anymore. There's now an equally visible opt-out button on the consent dialog. When I visit sites like USA Today, I get a much nicer version without tracking, ads and auto-playing videos: https://i.imgur.com/YQXaavw.jpg

zero robocalls, and I don't have any spam - but that's a bait in bad faith, as you have zero experience on your own.

You can request job interview data from companies or them backlisting you etc. GDPR isn't just internet data, it is all data.

Do you think it is good that your healthcare data is secret in USA? If so, why just healthcare data? If a woman buys pregnancy related items, and that company sells that data to everyone else, now everyone knows she is likely pregnant, why should that be completely public and free for all? GDPR prevents that.

I want to be able to opt out of tracking. GDPR has improved my life.

Websites that want to make it easy for me give me a “reject all cookies” button. It is not the fault of GDPR that most websites want to trick you into just clicking “accept all.”

Which is fine. European alternatives will emerge.

> rent-seeking bureaucratic moochers.

Sorry but no. That's like getting a speeding ticket and complaining about the fine. You break a law - you pay a fine. That is no rent-seeking.

> Release open source software with license specifically prohibiting European companies from using them.

That's no longer opensource: The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons. (https://opensource.org/osd)

> Increase prices for services. (chatGPT should be 3x more for European users)

> It's time for free-market to truly show it's power.

If they raise service prices to three times above the US level, they will forego profits. Why would the free market do that?

>Release open source software with license specifically prohibiting European companies from using them.

Even if this happened (which it wont, see sibling comments), it would have to be enforced within the European courts. EU could easily just change laws or choose not to enforce it.

And do the same for copyright of American media. Congrats! Now you have started a trade war and Russia and China are laughing in the corner.

let them. It's also about time to build open source license that specifically prohibit EU companies from using them. Bunch of rent-seeking moochers