this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2025
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If you think about it: The GDPR applies to all data of EU citizens regardless of where they are or where you are. There is no way that this app is not having some EU guy in New York in it and therefore totally in violation of GDPR
The treaties and international laws between these countries absolutely allow the EU to enforce GDPR against companies and individuals outside of the EU if it involves an EU citizen as the victim. I know this because I have to work with it every day and I'm from the US.
And what is the EU going to do about it? Governing bodies can declare extraterritorial laws all they want, but they are meaningless unless they have a way to enforce them.
No European law applies outside Europe. That's kind of the nature of laws.
Other users have written about GDPR, but just FYI: There are a lot of laws that apply worldwide. You might not like it, but states really do have laws in place that they are applying to everybody in the world. Thailand has draconian laws about insulting their king and they totally do not care if you insulted him inside or outside of the country. They can't arrest you whereever you are, but if you ever try to visit Thailand, you will get arrested. And many countries also have laws in place about stuff that their citizen do outside of the country.
That’s the big part of what makes GDPR so wide-reaching and impactful. It protects European residents, not European IP addresses. If you’re a resident of Europe, you’re covered under GDPR. Even if you’re visiting the US. That’s why even Americans get GDPR questions when visiting sites, because the site can’t just filter by IP location to determine whether or not you need to be shown the GDPR prompt.
Enforcement can be trickier, sure. But to be clear, GDPR does cover non-European companies as long as they’re interacting with a European resident.
Wrong. US citizen while in EU falls under GDPR. EU citizen while anywhere outside of EU falls under GDPR.
It is up to EU to enforce it.
That's kind of the nature of laws.