From the report embedded above (with added links):
Tech companies’ reign over users’ personal data has run largely unchecked in the age of the internet. Europe is seeking to end that with a new law
… the European Union enacted the world’s most ambitious internet privacy law [the General Data Protection Regulation (the GDPR)], even winning support from the CEO of the biggest tech company in America, Apple’s Tim Cook. …
Max Schrems: The default under the European system is you’re not allowed to use someone else’s data unless you have a justification. …
Jeffrey Chester: Americans have no control today about the information that’s collected about them every second of their lives. …
Today, if one of the big tech companies chooses to ignore Europe’s new data protection law it could cost them 4 percent of their global revenues, which for the biggest companies would mean billions of dollars. Those decisions will likely be made here in Dublin, … Ireland’s data protection commissioner Helen Dixon says it’s not going to be business as usual.
Helen Dixon: U.S. internet companies have no doubt that this law is serious, it has serious bite. And all of them are eager to avoid any engagement with that.
Dixon says tech companies are spending tens of millions of dollars hiring lawyers, compliance officers and engineers to make sure they are operating within the law. …
Steve Kroft: You think the big tech companies, the people in Silicon Valley are taking this seriously?
Eoin O’Dell: I think they have to.
Eoin O’Dell is a law professor at Trinity College in Dublin and a leading expert on European privacy law. He says Europe has now established an international standard for internet privacy, and companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon are not about to retreat from a $17 trillion market.
Eoin O’Dell: We have safety standards in cars, but that hasn’t stopped us driving cars. We have emissions standards for – for the gas in the cars but that hasn’t stopped us using the gas in the cars . The data companies are – going to comply in the same way as the – car companies have complied
Steve Kroft: To stay in business.
Eoin O’Dell: To stay in business.
Since the European privacy law was passed, at least ten other countries have adopted similar rules. So has the state of California. Perhaps sensing the inevitable, Facebook, Twitter, Google and Amazon are now saying they could support a U.S. privacy law if they were given considerable input. The Internet Association, which lobbies for big tech, and its president Michael Beckerman say they would support giving Americans reasonable access to their information and some privacy rights now enjoyed by the Europeans. …
Produced by Maria Gavrilovic. Associate producer, Alex Ortiz.