Your premise is flawed. My future is already better than when I started using Google. It promised me a better future and I have already received the benefit and there are many, many more benefits coming in the future. I no longer have to buy and maintain my own hardware for my files. I don't have to worry about losing my precious photos in a fire. I have found better restaurants by allowing my preferences to be known.

So they are not just gathering data and providing hope. There are tangible benefits today.

Sure, my concern are all the bad things that will happen when all collected data ends up in the hands of a future totalitarian state. Do you know if there is a kill switch in place ?

https://www.wired.com/2017/05/googles-perfect-future-will-al...

The maximum penalty for violating the GDPR is 4% of worldwide turnover. Possibly stupid question: I keep hearing that this is considered a "high" penalty, but if you're Google or Facebook and this (or any) regulation substantially threatens your bottom line to the tune of more than 4%, wouldn't you just eat it like a tax?

The maximum current penalty is 4% of worldwide turnover. I imagine that if it becomes clear that isn't enough to force compliance, legislation can be passed to raise the penalty.