No, it absolutely does not "[apply] to anyone anywhere processing personal information of people inside the EU." I don't know why people keep saying this, I have no idea where this misconception came from.
>Your company is service provider based outside the EU. It provides services to customers outside the EU. Its clients can use its services when they travel to other countries, including within the EU. Provided your company doesn't specifically target its services at individuals in the EU, it is not subject to the rules of the GDPR.
Recital 23 of the GDPR provides some more information about when an organisation would be considered as targeting users in the EU:
"In order to ensure that natural persons are not deprived of the protection to which they are entitled under this Regulation, the processing of personal data of data subjects who are in the Union by a controller or a processor not established in the Union should be subject to this Regulation where the processing activities are related to offering goods or services to such data subjects irrespective of whether connected to a payment. In order to determine whether such a controller or processor is offering goods or services to data subjects who are in the Union, it should be ascertained whether it is apparent that the controller or processor envisages offering services to data subjects in one or more Member States in the Union. Whereas the mere accessibility of the controller's, processor's or an intermediary's website in the Union, of an email address or of other contact details, or the use of a language generally used in the third country where the controller is established, is insufficient to ascertain such intention, factors such as the use of a language or a currency generally used in one or more Member States with the possibility of ordering goods and services in that other language, or the mentioning of customers or users who are in the Union, may make it apparent that the controller envisages offering goods or services to data subjects in the Union."
The EU can say this all they want, but the reality is it has zero teeth for any organization conducting business outside the EU, with no actual presence in the EU.
EU laws simply do not apply to the world, even if the EU thinks they should.
> The EU can say this all they want, but the reality is it has zero teeth for any organization conducting business outside the EU, with no actual presence in the EU.
Perhaps not, but the EU is the world's second-largest economy (only $2tn behind the US and $4tn ahead of China) accounting for about 1/5th of the global economy.
If one wants to operate a company that does international business, one will probably want to do business in the EU, which means following EU law in such matters.
https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/refo...
>When the regulation does not apply
>Your company is service provider based outside the EU. It provides services to customers outside the EU. Its clients can use its services when they travel to other countries, including within the EU. Provided your company doesn't specifically target its services at individuals in the EU, it is not subject to the rules of the GDPR.