The GDPR grew out of the more fundamental worries Europeans have about the use of their personal data and was compounded by concerns over the way U.S. tech giants leverage that data for commercial purposes. Wojciech Wiewiórowsk, an assistant supervisor at the European Data Protection Supervisor, noted that his and other agencies had concerns about the way third-party apps harvested data long before the controversy over Cambridge Analytica, which was accused of misuing customer information obtained from an academic researcher for work on President Trump's campaign.

Source: Los Angeles Times May 22, 2018 18:00 UTC