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An unwanted update to your Google Account

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Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#141

Post by dredmorbius »

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…

Google wishes to enjoy the investment, employment, legal, and cultural benefits of being physically located in the United States for its key operations, but wishes to associate itself with Ireland, the Netherlands, and Bermuda for tax purposes.

Why shouldn't its users seek similar geographic arbitrage?

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#142

Post by [deleted] »

izacus wrote: post #73
waych wrote: post #46

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…

This seems to have been changed lately - Google account will switch it's location (but not language) by itself if it detects you're in a certain country for a long time. Happened to some people I know as well.

[deleted]

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#143

Post by 988747 »

bartvk wrote: post #138
988747 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Europe, but past few years I've been working for US-based company, using their VPN a lot. Google wants to associate me with USA instead of my home country, and when I tried to fill support request to correct them their answer was basically "shut up, we know better". I created another mailbox and am slowly migrating to it. Fuck you Google.

If you are migrating anyway, think about getting your own domain and migrate to that.

That's exactly what i did - for now I'm hosting it on OVH with their "Professional Email" service, which looks a lot like Outlook.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#144

Post by [deleted] »

ajross wrote: post #56
masklinn wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Localization settings are distinct from location, they're just defaults. You can read Google in German right here in the US, etc... The author was concerned about losing privacy protection offered by Google to people in Germany as required by German law. Which is nonsensical, because German law does nothing to protect you in Maylasia .

[deleted]

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#146

Post by AnssiH »

ipaddr wrote: post #31
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…

How many apps get region locked to Australia?

In addition to what siblings said: taxi apps, parking apps, food delivery apps, package delivery apps are sometimes region locked. I'm not in Australia, though.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#147

Post by remus »

dredmorbius wrote: post #141
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…

Google wishes to enjoy the investment, employment, legal, and cultural benefits of being physically located in the United States for its key operations, but wishes to associate itself with Ireland, the Netherlands, and Bermuda for tax purposes. Why shouldn't its users seek similar geographic arbitrage?

Because Google has to satisfy the legal requirements of the country the user is actually in.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#148

Post by 3836293648 »

rsj_hn wrote: post #129
croes wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both are german citizens and both are not in the country to which they are now to be assigned. The latter wasn't even in Thailand at all. So I guess they just don't want that Google makes some bullshit associations for them which undermie the GDPR.

So you are saying if a German citizen travels to Mexico, they don't need to obey Mexican law because they are German citizens? Suppose a law in Mexico requires Google to store search queries and make them available to the government for 1 year, or it requires the collection of certain types of personal information, and a law in Germany bans Google from storing search queries or collecting the information. Now a Germa…

You can't go somewhere and expect their laws to not apply to you. You can absolutely go somewhere and still have the laws of your home apply to you, even if they won't be enforced till you get home.

A implies B does not mean B implies A

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#149

Post by spiddy »

izacus wrote: post #90
IX-103 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the EU, GDPR protections apply to EU citizens wherever they are in the world...

That's wrong. According to EU, GDPR applies to EU residents and the companies need to protect EU resident privacy no matter which country they hail from.

Doesn't this mean that US customs should comply with GDPR when collecting data from EU citizens? I don't remember being notified of my GDPR rights when entering US last time. I suppose this boils down to enforceability.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#150

Post by alexeldeib »

seoaeu wrote: post #127
croes wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How but just asking your customer instead of guessing by unreliable factors?

Is there any reason to believe that asking would be remotely reliable? There's a reason that liquor stores don't just ask people whether they're over 21.

Yet, online that’s all websites 18+ and 21+ do.
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