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An unwanted update to your Google Account

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Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#51

Post by floatingatoll »

stavros wrote: post #33
floatingatoll wrote: post #8

Can EU citizens living in Malaysia long-term exercise their GDPR rights when Google decides that they reside in Malaysia?

No, because the GDPR doesn't apply to citizens, but to companies. It only applies to companies that target the EU for their services: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/refo...

That is technically correct, but ultimately unhelpful in the context of the post. I’ve rewritten my question to address your objections to my phrasing.

Is Google required to comply with GDPR data and deletion requests made by EU citizens that Google has deemed to be be residing in Malaysia?

Since you’re familiar with GDPR, I would appreciate your opinion on it.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#52

Post by mikelward »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #38
ipaddr wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many apps get region locked to Australia?

I'm not in Australia, but many other countries have region locked local apps. In my experience banking is a big problem, though it seems to have improved in the last few years. Local TV providers still use region-locked apps for streaming services.

Mobile phone companies is another one. Installing the Vodafone app was (maybe still is) impossible in many countries if you're not a local.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#53

Post by eingaeKaiy8ujie »

efitz wrote: post #5

Why are you using Google if privacy is this much of a concern for you? There are many other services that provide much better privacy protections, eg ProtonMail.

It's not only about mail though. I don't use Gmail, but I still need a Google account for my job to access our Drive, Calendar, etc. I will delete it without hesitation once I don't need it.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#54

Post by fchu »

Google changing the country in their terms of services without user explicit approval/opt-in is much worse than it seems.

As a user, I might have Germany as my country in Google while living in Malaysia: maybe I like its privacy law better, or I'm a German ambassador on a diplomatic mission, or a German citizen on an exchange program, or a Malaysian citizen who signed up for Google while on vacation in Germany and is now confused about some parts of their account.

The point is, only the last scenario needs some fixing, while in all other cases, the user will understandably prefer to keep the country unchanged. Yet Google forcibly and preemptively switches country in all these scenarios, with no real benefits to the user.

But if there is no real benefit to the end user, and not everyone wants this, why force this change in the first place? Something technical that has to do with local laws.

And that's where it's really bad: - It's bad as a principle, because if a person signs a contract with an entity under a specific jurisdiction, that person doesn't expect the jurisdiction to change unilaterally. - It's bad in practice, because instead of knowing with certainty that my data is under a specific jurisdiction, I'm now subject to some automated process that could unilaterally move my data to a random country, resulting in unintended exposure to its laws

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#55

Post by anoncake »

superkuh wrote: post #13

It's even worse if you don't enable javascript. Suddenly most google services will be in another language (not english) and there's nothing you can do about it. My google account regularly gets switched to Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc because lots of people from those countries use the same (canadian) VPS provider as me to tunnel though.

If only there was some sort of Accept-Language header.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#56

Post by ajross »

masklinn wrote: post #41
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.

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.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#57

Post by ipaddr »

qwertox wrote: post #39
efitz wrote: post #5

Why are you using Google if privacy is this much of a concern for you? There are many other services that provide much better privacy protections, eg ProtonMail.

Many others? I only know of ProtonMail. Then there's mailbox.org and Posteo, but both are required to provide access to the government [1]. Their only option is to provide end-to-end encryption, like ProtonMail does. I wouldn't trust any other email provider than one of those three, if I would need to have truly secure emailing via a 3rd party. But none are in a different position that Google, maybe with exception of…

I would only trust my own server and even then.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#59

Post by lrem »

efitz wrote: post #5

Why are you using Google if privacy is this much of a concern for you? There are many other services that provide much better privacy protections, eg ProtonMail.

Disclaimer: I'm a Googler. These are my personal opinions.

Email is a small part of things I care about. Moreover, there's snowflake's chance in hell I succeed at convincing every correspondent to switch to e2e encryption and off services no more trustworthy than Google or Microsoft. So, the technical premise of ProtonMail doesn't help.

When it comes to Swiss privacy law... I'm already protected by GDPR. Google is a juicy and politically convenient target for most countries, so I'm not worried about its compliance. And I'd rather stick to a company with a legal team equipped to wrestle with government overreach.

Finally, I feel perfectly fine trusting Google to keep my private things private. I keep copies of important documents in Drive. Realistically, the highest risk vector for them leaking is someone pwning my machine.

Re: An unwanted update to your Google Account

#60

Post by ipaddr »

chki wrote: post #44
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.

The GDPR does apply to non-EU based services but no enforcement is possible.

So it doesn't matter where you live if the service is out of reach of this law.

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