>How it's any better? Small companies can be bought by big companies. French government is as capable of trampling over their citizen's privacy the moment they feel they need it as US government is.
It's better for Europeans because the company in question is European and so will not export their data to New Jersey. And because any success it has will presumably better benefit France and Europe.
> It's better for Europeans because the company in question is European and so will not export their data to New Jersey
There aren't many government institutions in New Jersey that would take a lot of interest in anything Frenchmen are doing. There are a lot of institutions in France that would be interested in anything Frenchmen are doing, if it contradicts what the French government wants to be happening. The main threat to citizen's privacy always comes from the government closest to them, the government overseas has its own citizens to worry about and pays much less attention to foreign citizens on foreign land. There could be exceptions, true, but as a rule, if you look into New Jersey, you'd sooner find mass surveillance of American citizens than mass surveillance of the French.
Same goes for commercial interests. If I want to run targeted ads in New Jersey, I want to have profiles of New Jersey people, not French people. So buying data from France in New Jersey would not be a routine occurrence, but buying local data would be.