It is neither impossible to follow or very hard. It just happens to be incompatible with US laws that grant local law enforcement access to stuff that is stored outside their jurisdiction, for customers also outside any jurisdiction.

Neither it discriminates foreign companies. Domestic companies have to follow the same rules.

Yeah, all countries should just fix their legislation to be compatible with the EU one. Is it so hard?

If they want to provide services to EU yes they should. Or at least limit governmental powers to their own citizens.

Well, in the case of GDPR it is the EU that extends its powers to persons (natural and legal) based outside of the EU The CLOUD act good or bad only puts requirements on companies based in the US.

GDPR only applies if you are selling or providing services to entities in EU. Which I think isn't an overreach.

Google refused to follow Chinese laws (by spying on the Chinese for their government IIRC). So they got out of China. This allowed for companies respecting Chinese laws to bloom.

I would hope that the same is possible in EU (except that, as an EU citizen, EU laws of course seem more moral than either Chinese or US ones...)

>In both cases, the rest of the world should retaliate by limiting access to advanced technology until laws change.

That part is ok,but the problem isn't the GDPR but the CloudAct.

The US made it impossible to use any service of an US company by demanding access to all their data no matter where it's stored.

Imagine the US government could enter any house just because the lock is manufacturered by an US company.

And the US has a proven history of using wiretap data for economic benefits. See Echolon and Airbus vs Boing

I can’t see EU’s balkanization in positive light either. Seems good ol protectionism instead of actually innovating. Privacy is a trope, they give away data at US’s whim.

The EU isn't "the" EU. The GDPR was created by the elected representatives of the EU citizens. The EU commission consisting of representatives of the EU member state's governments are giving away the data.

Elections have consequences.

We wanted data protection, we got data protection. The commission is losing in court with its idea to give data away (e.g. privacy shield invented by commission, stopped by the court).