Google is planning to move its British users’ accounts out of the control of European Union privacy regulators, placing them under U.S. jurisdiction instead, sources said.
The shift, prompted by Britain’s exit from the EU, will leave the sensitive personal information of tens of millions with less protection and within easier reach of British law enforcement.
Brexiteers getting what they wanted and deserve.
Since I created my Google account while living in the UK it wasn’t a huge surprise to receive an email from Google telling me they were moving my data. But having since moved to Finland as an EU citizen, I couldn’t find any obvious way for me to tell them not to. I deleted my account, but that’s probably not a solution for a lot of other people.
The UK is in a strange place right now as far as GDPR is concerned. The rules and rights continue to hold until at least the end of the year, and then until the government votes to change them. Until that happens,, if Google weakens protections, I think it would be breaking UK law.
We will still have to adhere to the GDPR afterwards, since the products and services will still need to be sold to EU countries amongst other parties. If the GDPR is relaxed for the purposes of dealing with data inside of the UK, it’ll be a sad loss as it’s already very difficult to trust how data is stored and used (I’ve worked in development here long enough to say there is very little regard for true privacy of data). Even the ICO’s measures are a fraction of what the GDPR covers.
“placing them under U.S. jurisdiction instead”
Yeah, we all knew that the UK was never an independent country, with it’s own “jurisdiction”, but just a vassal of the US in the EU 🙂
> “Brexiteers getting what they wanted and deserve.”
And tragically for us who voted to remain, having to once again put up with the consequences.
> “Brexiteers getting what they wanted and deserve.”
Sorry but I have to strongly speak up against this sentence. First of all not all Brexiteers wanted the Brexit, secondly those who wanted it might not have primarily wanted to get f____d by Google and thirdly I find it very hostile to simply state that a whole nation like the UK “deserve” to get f____d by Google just because they voted to regain their national sovereignty.
@nnnnic
You lost me there.
Either you and your national sovereignty create your own consumer protectionist laws or you admit that quitting the EU was a bad move in this regard.
“First of all not all Brexiteers wanted the Brexit,”
Huh? This seems a bit dissonant.
Brexiteers are experiencing the old saying in the flesh: “Be careful what you wish for because you may get it.”
Brexit has to be perhaps the single largest collective shooting in own foot.
I must admit, as a British citizen (and one who voted remain), I find Thom’s last sentence unbelievably offensive.
Fuck you Thom.
Generally, I’ve agreed wuith Thom’s stances, but to think that British citizens deserve what is by my reading an illegal move by Google (GDPR protections still hold here until and if out government decides to change that). The only change is that the last recourse for violations are an issue for our High Court, not the European Court.
I will be filing a GDPR complaint on this to the Information Commissioner over here. The UK could probably do with the revenue of a willful GDPR violation of this size at the moment. I will also be looking at moving all my Google accounts to other providers because Fuck You Google too.
Very well said. I have long said my goodbys to Google and I now have a very bitter taste in my mouth when I read osnews, which I have done for probably the last 20 years straight. So at least I send even warmer greetings from Germany to our friends in the UK this way!
As yet another British Citizen (actually we’re Subjects not citizens as if we don’t have enough to bare) who voted to remain I also agree except for the ‘Generally, I’ve agreed with Thom’s stances’ as I hardly ever do , especially anything political.
I do have the option of Irish Citizenship if needed
My UK passports have borne the legend British Citizen, not British Subject for decades now, whatever the actual tangible difference is. Every citizen of whatever country is subject to the laws of that land.
As you were.
I apologise on behalf of Thom. You didn’t really deserve Brexit, but you got what your people wanted anyway. It’s not that we care any more, but I do hope you accept this apology. We should treat each other as equals regardless of Brexit, although being British must feel like being a second-class citizen these days.
But most importantly Fuck You Google, the most despicable corporation on the Google Advertising Web. Let’s stand together on either side of the Brexit border and make this divorce hurt them where it hurts the most.
British aren’t second-class citizen at all. They were the only ones who fought against the Nazi during WW2 (before the US decided to play too) and they decided to remove the only foot they had into the EU (they not adopted the Euro currency and many other rules because they were always have been a bit savvy not to embrace it fully from the beginning). Now that they tasted it for the last 20 years or so since the rise of the Euro in the early 00s, they knew what they had gained or lost. Sure the world has changed since then, but as a matter of fact, being part of the EU doesn’t always protect you from the US or Asia, since the GAFAM still have pretty much all power through Ireland and Luxembourg, China building bridge in Croatia with EU funding, or Poland buying expensive US jet fighters instead than EU ones, because OTAN deal and so. The freedom of movement between the EU countries is a fallacy, because what really was allowed was also freedom of cash going in and out of EU without regulation, moreover factories relocation to eastern countries and social dumping from them. It’s not as nice as always bringing “But there’s Erasmus and we love all each other” flower-power on the table.
“British aren’t second-class citizen at all. They were the only ones who fought against the Nazi during WW2 (before the US decided to play too) ”
I want to believe your post is some kind of performance art regarding satire for which the world is not ready yet…
Before Pearl Harbor, the US had no problem dealing with the Nazi, great grandfather Prescott Bush was in huge trafficking with them. Bush not blushing. France was too collaborating (PĂ©tain, Vichy), Italy (Mussolini), Spain (Franco), Japan, etc. Before Hitler gone full berserk, he was considered a respectable German chancellor with nothing to be afraid of. In itself nothing wrong. But then…
A simple “Yes” would have sufficed.
PS. Berlin was taken by the Russians not the English (or the Americans for that matter).
RobG,
I can sympathize. The “getting what they wanted and deserve” argument is offensive and wrong at least without pointing the finger in a more specific direction. It’s similar here in the US where all voters are collectively chided over the passage of horrible policies and politicians despite the fact that many of these policies are just as unpopular here too. For better or worse our democratic elections are severally compromised by gerrymandering and electoral colleges that help unpopular candidates win. Simply blaming the voters can show ignorance of what’s actually going on.
Anyways I would argue that the case for not continuing to use google shouldn’t be based on GDPR in the first place. Rather the decision should be based on whether their values & policies align with yours and not the laws that confine them IMHO. I still find it ironic the way Thom will criticize google and yet osnews itself runs at a google data center.
@RobG
If you voted remain, then none of the content is directed at you, because you’re not a Brexiteer.
Unfortunately though, you suffer the same fate as them. How nice a democracy can turn out sometimes.
getting what they deserve? for real? so then every single british subject deserves google to be an asshole with then? no one deserves it – whether in or outside the UK. the whole world deserves better than google.
also, i’d like to point out that even though a step in the right direction, the GDPR is neither well thought out nor well implemented. the EU is not some land of joys and miracles, it’s just not as rotten as most other places.
Thom, please take a step back and take a look at the situation from a broader and less offensive perspective..
The saddest thing about this post (apart from the last sentence, which would have been better not said) is that, for most people, whether the data were stored in the EU, US, North Korea or on the Moon would be irrelevant.
The overwhelming majority of people simply do not care about issues like this. I have worked in IT for 30 years and it amazes me that, on looking around, I would say 80% of people with a browser window open do not even have ad blocking. And that is a population of supposedly technically savvy users; what the general population does, or more likely does not do, is probably better not thought about.
As I understand the current arrangements, given EU law was given continuance under British law post-brexit, there has to be an active legislative change for the GDPR style protections to cease applying to British users.
That means that it will have to move through Parliament and be subject to the usual democratic processes.
I don’t really see what the problem here is, except people complaining that external, foreign mandates won’t now be forcing specific details of any future legislative changes to the privacy regime.
>Brexiteers getting what they wanted and deserve.
Just have to point out that generally Brexiteers knew and accepted that there would be negative consequences to their choice, which they accepted in exchange for what they consider to be the superior good. If you really care strongly about your country’s sovereignty and the democratic accountability of your legislative bodies, which you obtained after many years of uncertainty and bitter struggle, you aren’t suddenly going to have regrets and bawl your eyes out over something as trivial as …EU data protection.