Most U.S. Adults in Poll Unwilling to Share Personal Data for Ads to Keep a Service Free

"As Jennifer King, director of consumer privacy at Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society, points out, timing is everything.

She said it is “an incredible coincidence” that the news about the Cambridge Analytica breach came out around the same time that GDPR was getting ready to be implemented “because it has shone the light on the threat third-party data collectors pose in the ecosystem,” she said Monday by phone.

In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said Wednesday that the company is offering all Facebook users the same privacy controls and settings, no matter where they live, as it updates the platform to become GDPR compliant.

King also said the implementation of the GDPR on Friday could further inspire American interest in privacy regulations. Those traveling to Europe could find they enjoyed the user experience online so much, for example, that they start relying on virtual private networks, or VPNs, more to replicate the interface when they’re back in the States.

“It’s interesting to see that we have the GDPR coming in to play at a time when we’ve just had a huge incident blow that up in a way that nothing else has before,” King said."