> GDPR [...] were intended to hurt American tech giants.
GDPR builds on previous EU privacy regulation, some of which has existed long before the US tech giants.
Here's the Council of Europe's Convention number 108, introduced in 1981. https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventio...
Hesse, Germany,introduced data protection law in 1970. Sweden introduced national law in 1973. Germany in 1977 and France in 1978.
The OECD introduced guidelines in 1980.
The Council of Europe had Convention No 108 in 1981.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tyfYCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA47&lpg...