Jeff, note that this is EU (European Union) regulation and EU is not whole of Europe, there are countries outside of it. Which means that for some European countries and some European citizens EU rules don't apply, and thus GDPR.

I am not surprised that this EU regulation sounds complicated and hard to understand. Most (if not every) EU regulation (not just for digital) are like that. Problem is that EU has become to big, bureaucratic, out of touch with real life, that doesn't solve but introduces new problems and has way to many regulations. While in some cases intentions might sound noble, execution is poor and awful. Take for example two well known cases for digital: cookie law and VAT MOSS.

My bet is that this is how it will end with GDPR. Privacy would be improved only on paper, not in real life.