I'm seeing a lot of talk from Europeans about how they need European competitors to US companies to protect their data.

The question I have to ask is:

What makes you think your European competitor company won't start doing the data-harvesting and privacy-invading methods that their US counterparts do ?

Your answer might be: European laws and regulation

But then, just like in the US with GooFace, your European competitor will setup their lobby groups and get their preferred candidates into Europe-governance