> I am not free to use add-supported US services when they stop being provided to EU citizens due the onerous requirements imposed on them by privacy laws.
Those companies are free to not to do business wit you but it is not the EU privacy laws making that decision. Those companies can provide their service in a privacy-respecting way and many will - the EU is not a small market to give up on. You can also use a VPN.
> I am not free to use a website and give away "my data" by default without having to click Allow All on a damn cookie popup.
You think users should need to be technically competent to block cookies but don't want to be technically competent to install an extension like https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/i-dont-care-a...
And don't forget that hose consent popups are likely specifically designed to be annoying in order to get you mad at the privacy laws. Don't fall for it - the EU privacy laws do not required websites to be user-unfriendly.
> The EU politicians unilaterally decided to steal these freedoms from all EU citizens.
I am not going to pretend the EU is a perfect democracy, but ultimately, those decisions are made by those elected by the peole - directly or indirectly.
> The right to privacy is not a freedom. I am not sure it's even a real right.
It is a real right that has historically been enforced in many EU countries. The recent laws do nothing more than update that enforcement to the digital age.
> But it was easily accessible even before the current privacy laws, even if it needed a little technical competence.
No, it really wasn't. You can block cookies but you cannot stop companies from tracking you via the 10 million other ways they have available or to trade information about you with third parties. You cannot use technical means to find out what information companies have collected about you. You cannot use technical means to compel companies to delete information they have already collected. THAT is why we have new laws.
