The last time they came up with a regulation, we got that GDPR awfulness. Made zero impact on anything, just forced me to click multiple buttons before visiting a website.
Well, almost all.
GitHub doesn't show you that popup, because it doesn't collect unnecessary data. Neither does Hacker News.
But (despite your confusion about the European identity) I must admit you have a point. I think there is a mentality difference - Americans (USAnians?) are OK with being tracked by corporations, but hate any kind of government power. In Europe it's usually the opposite.
The easiest thing to do is actually just not offer services in the EU for a smaller company.
And quite frankly the law is also complicated as with all other EU laws such as the cookie law. The interpretations vary and are not strict and clear. I have never seen laws in other western countries always blamed on the lack of interpretation.
If I was still in the EU I would simply incorporate offshore and operate offshore, it is more convenient but ive left
You would still have to follow GDPR.
> The interpretations vary and are not strict and clear. I have never seen laws in other western countries always blamed on the lack of interpretation.
It's the same with every law. That's basically how laws work. It's even worse in countries using common law as case law is a thing.
It really isn't. If it wasn't such a butcher's shop with GDPR i wouldn't be complaining as i am aligned with the intent. Also hey for someone who's lived in both I much prefer the common law or mixed ways of creating law as it requires precedent first instead of it being made on a whim.
Implementation could definitely be a lot better, but I think it protects Europe from the privacy hellscape that's currently happening in the US.
The problem is that enforcement is severely lacking, thus most of those offenders actually get away with it.