An unwanted update to your Google Account • Hacker News Board

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#41

Post by masklinn » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 3:32 PM UTC

ajross wrote: post #30

Well... is the author actually in Maylasia or Germany? I mean, that matters. You don't get to personally choose whose laws you're subject to, nor does Google. Having your Google settings set to Germany does nothing to protect you from Maylay law, nor Google for that matter. If you don't want to be subject to the laws of the country you're in[1] you have to move . Google can't help you. [1] Edit: I guess in this circu…

> Well... is the author actually in Maylasia or Germany?

It seems rather clear that the author is physically in Malaysia.

> I mean, that matters.

Kinda but kinda not? If you're an american citizen and for some reason go spend 6 months or a year in Malaysia, you probably don't want your accounts to be switched over to Malaysia, and possibly Malaysian, a language you probably do not speak.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#42

Post by judge2020 » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 3:33 PM UTC

ketamine__ wrote: post #22

Jaygles wrote: post #2

I understand the author's frustration. But until someone finds out how a company that operates globally can satisfy the laws of the countries their customers are located in without associating the accounts with a country, I'm not sure what we can do. > What I find curious is that it says the services are essentially the same between different countries. So, there is no advantage to me as a consumer for anything to ch…

If someone rents an Airbnb for a few months in a new location are they now a resident of that new location? If we aren't talking about residency then changing an association (whatever that means) seems arbitrary.

Regardless, google might have to follow privacy laws of countries even if you set foot there for a layover or for only a few hours - google itself isn’t a country and thus other countries can effectively bully them into doing anything if Google wants to stay in business there. Not a problem for random island nations that have few citizens, but you can bet any sizable nation blacklisting them could mean an appreciable loss in revenue (and maybe triggering other countries to make similar demands).

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#43

Post by martini333 » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 3:36 PM UTC

Meta: this site does not work on 4k monitor. Some weird relative sizes

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#44

Post by chki » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 3:37 PM UTC

laborat wrote: post #16

I was under the impression that the EU privacy laws (GDPR etc) applied to EU citizens regardless of location. If that impression is correct, then isn't it the case that nothing meaningful, privacy-wise, will change for the author even after this change to their account, as long as they remain a German citizen?

No, that's not correct. As an EU citizen living abroad, using non-EU based services, the GDPR will not apply. It would also be impossible to enforce something like that.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#45

Post by codegladiator » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 3:41 PM UTC

karaterobot wrote: post #40

If he lives in Germany, and they mistakenly changed his location to Malaysia, I understand his complaint. But, you can't just say "I want you to treat me as though I lived in a different country than I do, because I prefer their laws on this particular subject". Granted, I wish Google's approach to privacy was better all around, but given that they want to gobble up as much data as possible, and we all know about tha…

> you can't just say "I want you to treat me as though I lived in a different country than I do, because I prefer their laws on this particular subject

why not ?

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#46

Post by waych » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 3:41 PM UTC

Xoogler here.

The way I remember this working is that it is entirely dependent on the methods of payment (MOP) associated with your account. If you remove MOPs from country A, and then 30 days later you add a MOP from country B, your underlying gaia account will have the home country migrated (affects play store, etc).

The workaround is to use different accounts, each with MOP from different countries. Pretty sure IP doesn't matter.

Regarding which legal jurisdictions apply between you and a company like Google? Well, the courts are probably not going to consider what it says in your account profile.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#47

Post by contriban » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 3:44 PM UTC

The hilarious part is that I got this email maybe last week, moving my account to country X. Too bad I lived in country X for 7 months, they didn’t change it then, and now I’ve been in country Y for 2 months, across the world.

Why now? And why the wrong country? I have no links to country X and I haven’t been there in months.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#48

Post by lokedhs » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 3:44 PM UTC

chrismorgan wrote: post #15

I just took a look at this for my own account. It has me associated with India; I’m Australian, but spent just over a year in India recently. I have never received any notification like the one cited in this article. (Perhaps because it wouldn’t affect which company service is offered through? But the laws may still differ.) And as far as Google Play Store is concerned, I’m American for some completely unknown reason…

I was curious what country Google associates with me, and this is what I see:

As shown in Google’s Terms of Service, your account is associated with the following country: .

It seems there are things Google don't know about me, even though I'm not making this information secret.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#49

Post by ipaddr » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 3:45 PM UTC

rvba wrote: post #20

nerbert wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spoiler alert: in 10 years a leak reveals that ProtonMail is one of the multiple "Swiss-based privacy-oriented" services operated by secret services.

NordVPN is pushed so hard everywhere that it looks like a single point of failure - I assume every secret service wants to hack it, if they didnt already.

I would have expected some sort of crackdown on popular VPNs used by US citizens if they were as private as they seemed or at least some polical action funded by right holders.

We don't see this at all.

That tells me these services are compromised on some level.

A little while ago I noticed plenty of different VPN providers. Many of the smaller ones were bought and private labelled or had smear campaigns against them. Companies compete so some of that is understood.. but the extent of the attacks tells me players with powerful networks (governmental,business or rogue) shut down many legitimate smaller VPNs whike help promote others.

I would be wary of using any VPN if I expected privacy.

Rolling your own is easy enough but be careful where you setup shop.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#50

Post by daxuak » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 3:45 PM UTC

It's not mentioned in the article, but services could differ between app stores if we head in this direction, not only for privacy terms. For instance if China somehow get VPN apps off the shelves from HK's app store and people there couldn't associate their google accounts with regions other than HK, then that's a root/switch OS or no VPN scenario for them. Same could happen to Americans there - it's not based on citizenship or proof of residence, google just decides. Ultimately one can argue that even so it's not google's responsibility to fight against authoritarians or whatever, but imho android already has a closed eco system, this is getting worse.