> US government can not (legally) obtain data that resides in France
Explain how? If the US govt orders "copy the data from FR to US, or else" and the French govt orders "you can't do that, or else" then what is the company to do? They are breaking the law no matter what. Something has to give.
If they're an European company operating and hosting in Europe, the US government has no jurisdiction over them.
If it's an international company, sucks for them (until the countries harmonize their laws to guarantee reasonable privacy protections for everyone internationally). That's exactly why people are now looking for local alternatives to Google et al.
> If they're an European company operating and hosting in Europe, the US government has no jurisdiction over them.
No it is not true. Region of operation is completely irrelevant. US could arrest Kim Dotcom. Or non European companies have to comply with GDPR for European customers.
It's not completely irrelevant. The US has to cooperate with whichever country Kim/Julian/etc resides in. That country can totally reject the extradition request.
They only have to contact them because Kim was not in US soil. They would have to request for any people including American citizens if they are physically in some other country. If Kim decided to vacation to US they could skip all the extradition requests.
Explain how? If the US govt orders "copy the data from FR to US, or else" and the French govt orders "you can't do that, or else" then what is the company to do? They are breaking the law no matter what. Something has to give.