Yes, but then again: if you don't implement them society as a whole will end up holding the bag. Polluter pays is a very good principle.
> All regulation costs money to implement.
Yes. But that's called the cost of doing business. And most software based businesses have insane margins anyway because of their ability to scale.
> Even if each regulation by itself is cheap, these things add up -- it's death by a thousand cuts.
That's one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is that it levels the playing field between those that ride roughshot over their users rights and those that try to be nice.
> Another way of looking at it is that it levels the playing field between those that ride roughshot over their users rights and those that try to be nice.
Neither of those viewpoints are in opposition. You can both believe that more regulation kills some businesses through a 'death by a thousand cuts' and that these regulations level the playing field.
The GDPR is not going to cause any but the weakest businesses to close shop, in fact if the GDPR causes a business to close (which I highly doubt other than people voluntarily throwing in the towel because they can't be bothered) then I am not sure if I'm going to shed tears over that because it likely means that that business was so weak already that other things besides GDPR compliance were suffering as well (such as security).