Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google is moving EU citizens’ data to US?

andreagrandi.it

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 136 posts

Re: Google is moving EU citizens’ data to US?

#81

Post by stingraycharles »

drcursor wrote: post #13

Is there a way to find out where my google account is hosted ?

As a matter of fact, it does not matter that much as Google just copies it to the US. From their “Compliance” page: https://privacy.google.com/businesses/compliance/

“ We continue to offer a range of international data-transfer mechanisms and we are certified under the EU - U.S. and Swiss - U.S. Privacy Shield frameworks, which are a legal mechanism to enable the transfer of personal data from the EEA and Switzerland to the US, where certified organizations guarantee to provide a level of protection in line with EU data protection law. We also offer EU-approved Model Contract Clauses for some services.

“We will continue to monitor the evolution of international data-transfer mechanisms under the GDPR, and are committed to having a lawful basis for data transfers in compliance with applicable data protection laws.”

I find it interesting they do not specify what data is internationally transferred, and that they “monitor the evolution” of mechanisms that are compliant with the GDPR, but never say they themselves are compliant. They only position themselves in the light of a Data Processor of the GDPR, but not the actual Data Controller (eg Google Search).

It all smells very fishy.

Re: Google is moving EU citizens’ data to US?

#82

Post by contingencies »

thayne wrote: post #76
contingencies wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have three western citizenships, one is EU, and I live across borders, usually accessing the internet via VPN from China. Google cannot possibly understand this, nor should it try to, rather it should give everyone the best protections guaranteed by law anywhere in the world and only punch holes in it for local regulations in specific jurisdictions where unavoidable. To do anything else (such as profiling for ads)…

> it should give everyone the best protections guaranteed by law anywhere in the world What do you do when laws from different countries conflict with each other?

Use infinite lawyer dollars and infrastructure capabilities to route around the problem where viable. Where impossible, preserve maximum protection outside of these exceptions.

Re: Google is moving EU citizens’ data to US?

#83

Post by reaperducer »

stingraycharles wrote: post #81
drcursor wrote: post #13

Is there a way to find out where my google account is hosted ?

As a matter of fact, it does not matter that much as Google just copies it to the US. From their “Compliance” page: https://privacy.google.com/businesses/compliance/ “ We continue to offer a range of international data-transfer mechanisms and we are certified under the EU - U.S. and Swiss - U.S. Privacy Shield frameworks, which are a legal mechanism to enable the transfer of personal data from the EEA and Switzerland…

certified organizations guarantee to provide a level of protection in line with EU data protection law

"We have top men on it."

"Who?"

"Top. Men."

Re: Google is moving EU citizens’ data to US?

#85

Post by nottorp »

andreagrandi wrote: post #60
IAmEveryone wrote: post #53

There is obviously some ambiguity in the rules when people move around, and misclassifications can happen when, say, a Brasilian working for a US company in Switzerland picks up the neighbouring French wireless signal to log into their Asian VPN. But it's really a non-issue. Google will make a good effort reducing such errors, and there aren't going to be legal consequences, nor wild leaving-Europe-for-good-drama as…

We all know that mistakes can happen. That is not the issue. The issue here is that there is no way to contact them and ask to fix this. I tried at least 3 or 4 times to contact them on Twitter (they are replying to other people for other issues, why not replying to me?) but I didn't have any luck with it.

Top of HN usually works to get Google customer support :)

Re: Google is moving EU citizens’ data to US?

#86

Post by reaperducer »

myrandomcomment wrote: post #29

The simple suggestion would be that Google needs to ask for your citizenship status and go from there. Not sure else how to solve that. If I am an American living in the EU for a few years does the GDPR apply to me when I live there? I am going to the EU next week for 10 days. When I access my gmail from the EU what law applies?

The simple suggestion would be that Google needs to ask for your citizenship status and go from there

The simpler suggestion is that Google stop collecting and warehousing people's personal information.

Re: Google is moving EU citizens’ data to US?

#87

Post by [deleted] »

inetknght wrote: post #69
asiachick wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it is. It's called backups, and being prepared. If one data center burns down or is taken offline for other reason your data needs to be somewhere else.

> If one data center burns down or is taken offline for other reason your data needs to be somewhere else. Somewhere else doesn't necessarily need to be "in different jurisdiction"

[deleted]

Re: Google is moving EU citizens’ data to US?

#88

Post by jacquesm »

kick wrote: post #70
jacquesm wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I feel like people don't accept that Google needs the EU less than the EU needs Google. It is this sort of reasoning that will get Google slapped around. The whole idea that some corporation's interests or might trumps that of a continent with 300+ million people and a very substantial part of the world economy and Google's income is, frankly, ridiculous.

I want Google to get slapped around! Anyone who doesn't think Google has more power than sovereign nations is fooling themselves into ignoring the problems that Google has caused.

Google does not have more power than sovereign nations and they definitely do not have more power than the EU. They could get shut down tomorrow, we'd all be pissed off for a few weeks and then life would go on as usual. The whole idea that some company could strong-arm a continent is science fiction.

Re: Google is moving EU citizens’ data to US?

#89

Post by jacquesm »

shadowgovt wrote: post #28
KingOfCoders wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In which would way would you specifically think of "the EU needs Google"? Startups using Google Office? Google Mail? (I've dropped Gmail and Office a year ago, but I might come back)

Google pulling out of the EU would probably be disruptive for many Europeans, yes. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/04/europ...

But not nearly as disruptive as it would be to Google.

Re: Google is moving EU citizens’ data to US?

#90

Post by jacquesm »

kick wrote: post #74
IAmEveryone wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the world's largest economic sphere, and Google would be liable to lose not just the 20% or so in revenue, but also their claim to operate world-wide. Suddenly, AWS would be a whole lot more useful than GCS again. And for what? Because you and other Americans consider it somehow beneath you to know about other countries' laws? Note that while you're frustrated by the cognitive load and its impact on your jingois…

I want Amazon and Google to get pushed out of the EU. It'd be hilarious to me, and better for the world writ large. Also, GRPC is a Google framework. Did you mean GDPR? I think the GDPR is a great thing. I think Google is bad. That doesn't change the fact that Google will continue to make substantially more money off of the EU than the measly fines they've been given by the EU so far: there's no incentive for them to…

> I want Amazon and Google to get pushed out of the EU.

That won't happen. They may get fined though, until they fall in line.

Post reply on HN