The European Union (EU) passed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2016 with two years for companies with EU residents to comply. The regulations require companies to reveal to customers what personal data is collected, how it is used, and their policies concerning customer data.
Most existing policies before the May 25, 2018 deadline did not have that level of detail. So policies had to be changed and customers notified. Thus the recent emails, postal mailings, splash screens on web site visits, and acknowledge buttons before you can access your accounts.
I have touted the advantage of creating and maintaining an accurate inventory of accounts. These GDPR notices can help with that task.
Some sites and services now offer means of revealing the data they have collected on you via the account(s) created on the sites.
This is a good thing for gaining knowledge of the data collected.
This can be a bad thing if someone can convince a site they are you and can then view that data.
This will take some time to play out now that the regulation is in effect.
An advantage besides reminding you of all the accounts tied to your current email addresses: sites with customers resident in EU countries collect less data. Using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) with an exit point in an EU country gives less advertising, uses less tracking, and thus faster page loads.
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