They can, but then that can end up in EU court. If it happened to you, tell the consumer association of your country or your Data Protection Officer. People and companies can do what ever they like, they just have to live with the consequences.
Anti Commercial AI thingy
Inserted with a keystroke running this script on linux with X11
#!/usr/bin/env nix-shell
#!nix-shell -i bash --packages xautomation xclip
sleep 0.2
(echo '::: spoiler Anti Commercial AI thingy
[CC BY-NC-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)
Inserted with a keystroke running this script on linux with X11
```bash'
cat "$0"
echo '```
:::') | xclip -selection clipboard
xte "keydown Control_L" "key V" "keyup Control_L"
This is what we’re discussing
My biggest concern is they will hold your data hostage if you don’t pay or try to leave.
Are golem, pur, spiegel, and others doing so? Have you tried asking for your data to be deleted and gotten a “fuck you we won’t” or no response at all (which is also the equivalent of “fuck you we won’t”)?