I was talking about the reality of the US, but even if I was talking about Europe: how does the GDPR even enter this equation here? I was never asked for consent to have my face recorded when I get into a shop in Germany. Were you?
The big companies are still mining user data, they are just forced to use some extra dark patterns to trick people into compliance. Would-be criminals are not going to stop being criminals because of the threat of fines. And TLAs are not going to wait for due process to acquire access to data legally.
All that GDPR does is give the illusion that people are being protected and CYA for politicians and bureaucrats when asked "what are you doing about evil Zuckerberg?"
I don't want to have to read your noise.