Google Users In UK To Lose EU Data Protection: Reuters (reuters.com) 70
Sources told Reuters that 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. From the report: 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. The change was described to Reuters by three people familiar with its plans. Google intends to require its British users to acknowledge new terms of service including the new jurisdiction.
Ireland, where Google and other U.S. tech companies have their European headquarters, is staying in the EU, which has one of the world's most aggressive data protection rules, the General Data Protection Regulation. Google has decided to move its British users out of Irish jurisdiction because it is unclear whether Britain will follow GDPR or adopt other rules that could affect the handling of user data, the people said. If British Google users have their data kept in Ireland, it would be more difficult for British authorities to recover it in criminal investigations.
Ireland, where Google and other U.S. tech companies have their European headquarters, is staying in the EU, which has one of the world's most aggressive data protection rules, the General Data Protection Regulation. Google has decided to move its British users out of Irish jurisdiction because it is unclear whether Britain will follow GDPR or adopt other rules that could affect the handling of user data, the people said. If British Google users have their data kept in Ireland, it would be more difficult for British authorities to recover it in criminal investigations.
Re:Nothing to do with Brexit (Score:5, Insightful)
This is just Google avoiding the heavy burden of regulation from the EU. If they saw value in keeping it in the EU, they would keep it there and in turn this keeps people employed in the EU vs relocating the support for those accounts to the US.
Users don't seem to have any added value to these so-called privacy regulations if they even cared in the first place. It's not like we have less breaches now than 2-3 years ago, "the regulations, they do nothing"
No, this is just the current Tory government sucking up to wealthy donors by screwing over their own electorate by striping them of their rights. As for value, not having every move you make online sold and traded with wild abandon has value, you mindless Google shill.
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This is however also an opportunity to modernise our data protection laws properly, which the EU has failed miserably to do.
You go right ahead and do that. If you come up with more data protection for users than the EU currently has you'll find Google moving back to the EU. The only reason Google is making this move is because they can screw the British public over more outrageously under UK law than EU law and because they have received promises from the laughing lips of BoJo himself that their ability to screw over the internet using public in the UK is not going to be jeopardized any time soon.
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There's going to be some complication working out sensible levels of data protection across borders for mutual cooperation and that will require some level of harmonisation, neither of which we need the EU for.
Data protection at present is becoming particularly problematic because
Re: Nothing to do with Brexit (Score:3)
So it has everything to do with Brexit.
Re: Nothing to do with Brexit (Score:5, Insightful)
Just hear the brexiteers whine again: "that's not the brexit I voted for!". Yes it is, dummy, that's exactly what it is.
- Lines at immigration: "That's not..."
- Rollback of privacy and consumer protection laws: "That's not..."
- More expensive foreign products: "That's not..."
- Troubles in Northern Ireland; "That's not..."
- etc...
Turns out the EU was good for some things after all.
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Wait till BoJo the Clown gives them the american medical system he promised. Gotta love paying $25k/year for insurance that gives me the privilege of paying another $2k before they even begin covering 80% of the costs of things. Things like $150k births and $20k broken bones.
Re:Nothing to do with Brexit (Score:5, Insightful)
Google has to keep supporting EU regulations, as they keep doing business in the EU. Since they automate everything, they'll have a lot of one-time costs and very low per-user costs. Moving UK users into US jurisdiction isn't going to save them a significant amount of money.
What it does do is give Google more opportunities to make money off of the users' data, by using it in ways that the EU regulations forbid. Maybe you don't value privacy, but some people do.
Re:Nothing to do with Brexit (Score:4, Insightful)
> Nothing to do with Brexit
It literally states this move is prompted by Britainâ(TM)s exit from the EU. How is that nothing to do with Brexit? This move has absolutely been enabled by Brexit.
Companies in general, move their operations to wherever is best for them. That might mean cheaper, or it might mean fewer rules to protect users from their practices. In this case I think it's both; they are certainly not moving to provide their users a better experience.
I have used "these co-called privacy regulations" several times to deal with companies that failed to handle my data properly, including forcing one company to erase my data, prior to them subsequently being hacked. My data was never leaked.
You are right that some users do not care, but that says more about their ignorance than anything else.
I have also worked at two different companies and been involved in work to tighten up user data practices, specifically because of EU regulations. It's been painful, but in the end we have better designed systems as well as having much more control on how customer data is used. To say the regulations do nothing is ignorant at best.
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Why is placing British Users under U.S. jurisdiction easier than keeping them under EU jurisdiction. That's a question Google should answer - they didn't other than used because of Brexit.
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Why is placing British Users under U.S. jurisdiction easier than keeping them under EU jurisdiction. That's a question Google should answer - they didn't other than used because of Brexit.
As the UK is no longer part of the EU, EU regulations no longer apply to UK users... therefore, the default (US) regulations apply.
This is not easier for Google, but it is potentially easier for UK law enforcement should they need access to user's data, as they will not have to deal with GDPR restrictions.
Merry Brexit to you too... (Score:2)
...and a very happy independence to Scotland!
And freedom to Ireland.
North Ireland needs to join Ireland! (Score:1)
North Ireland needs to join Ireland!
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Chinese trolls.
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The people living there don't want that.
If it was that simple, there would never have been a problem. In fact, the people living there want different things.
Not the Brexit Colin voted for (Score:4, Insightful)
But Colin voted for the Brexit that provided an extra £350m a week for the NHS.
Not this Brexit that makes you wait in queues at the start of your mates stag night in Amsterdam, and tramples all over your privacy.
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It is amazing how many people would trade sovereignty of their nation and their future just to avoid passport lines when they go on holiday. Pretty stupid, but that is how a lot of people think.
Re: Not the Brexit Colin voted for (Score:1)
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"Data is still being collected, starting by taking a close look at the women in Amsterdam."
Too many wearing burqas for my taste.
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It's amazing how many people think nationalism is a good idea.
You can have nationalism or you can have imperialism. Pick one.
Re:Not the Brexit Colin voted for (Score:4, Insightful)
It's amazing how stupid people are about the idea of sovereignty in the first place.
Texas, Alabama, etc are not sovereign nations. When they tried to leave people started shooting at them until they stopped. When the UK tried to leave, no shots were fired and we did. This proves beyond any doubt that we were always a sovereign nation, able to choose for ourselves.
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Texas, Alabama, etc are not sovereign nations. When they tried to leave people started shooting at them until they stopped. When the UK tried to leave, no shots were fired and we did. This proves beyond any doubt that we were always a sovereign nation, able to choose for ourselves.
The Soviet Union dissolved relatively peacefully, but the members were hardly sovereign nations. Lots of former colony states have left the British Empire without bloodshed. That the UK could leave peacefully is hardly the (non-)smoking gun you think it is. In particularly it's not a good indicator of where the EU is going. Already if the UK tried rejoining today they'd find that all the exceptions and abstentions they had are null and void - as a "new" EU member you either accept the full package or you do
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Peacefully? Are you serious?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Britain is going its own way and it's going to be fabulous. For example it will be able to support its own agriculture to promote environmental goods relevant to its own countryside, and to produce crops that reflect its own climate, rather than being forced to work with rules designed for growing conditions in central France.
They'll have a huge advantage over the EU - the ability to set regulations for new sectors, the new ideas, and new conditions - quicker than the EU can, and based on sound science not
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The War of 1867 took such a terrible toll, to be honest.
But FYI, Canada left the Empire in the mid-19th century. It's why there's the British North America Act which basically set out the Canadian constitution as a new independent nation.
That's why there's a joke saying the Americans declared war to get independence, while Canadians polite
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UK still has a piece of land (some islands actually) that the locals want it back and Britain is not refusing to return to them. Even conspiring with the US (wiki leaks has some interesting diplomatic cables about that).
Even the UN and ICJ have ruled against the UK
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
So I think as far as most of the world is concerned, they are still trying to be unwelcomed colonial masters in certain parts of the world, even now. The British Empire is still aro
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Is there any evidence to back this statement up? It's easy to say that in theory that is the default position based on current policy, but the default position based on policy until quite recently was that there was no mechanism for leaving the EU so it would have been equally true to say it was impossible to leave the E
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Well it's hard to give any solid proof of what would happen in a hypothetical, future situation where the UK wants back in. But the EU bureaucrats have spent the last 3-4 years discussing how a withdrawal would work. They'll now spend this year and probably a few more on a free trade agreement and the aftermath. I'm discounting any possibility they'll turn around now and never "properly" leave, I'm assuming they will want at least a few years on the singles market. If the UK after all that tried to apply fo
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Because calling people who disagree with you stupid is such a shining example of tolerance and understanding.
Hey, how's that California secession thing going along? Remember that? What about Catalonia? Scotland? You know the one demanding a referendum - after Rejoiners spent the last 3 1/2 years telling us how referendums were illegitimate?
Hey, remember when the Remain (as it was called at the time) campaign campaigned on a platform of redoing the vote because it didn't come out the right way, and was [dominiccummings.com]
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Because calling people who disagree with you stupid is such a shining example of tolerance and understanding.
wow what a special little snowflake you are! If people use words counter to well established meanings then they are either stupid or mendacious.
[snip irrelevant ranting]
WTF is your point?
Hey, remember when the Remain (as it was called at the time) campaign campaigned on a platform of redoing the vote because it didn't come out the right way, and was going to add millions of non-British citizens to
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These days most of them seem to define sovereignty as getting to decide who fucks you with a rusty crowbar.
The UK was protected by pooling its sovereignty with the EU. Now it's vulnerable and the vultures are already circling.
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These days most of them seem to define sovereignty as getting to decide who fucks you with a rusty crowbar.
Ah yes but that crowbar will be made from British steel in Scunthorpe. Now that we are out of the EU we no longer have the right to veto the EU from protecting our steel industry and can protect it ourselves! Sovereignty!
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I imagine when the Chinese offered to do HS2 for 1/20th the price we could do it ourselves they planned on using Chinese steel, so even the crowbar is on offer in this brave new world.
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This isn't speculation, it's explicit in the EU charter and from the words of those who proposed it what the EU tries to achieve and how. The EU attempts to dissolve nations ultimately into a single European nation consisting of states which may have some level of autonomy but which are not independent nations. It achieves this by eroding sovere
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The problem with a revolt against imaginary oppression is that you end up with imaginary freedom.
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What sovereignty was traded? The very fact that the UK left the EU without starting a war in order to do so is irrefutable proof that the UK has sovereignty the entire time.
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Which is why the same people who argued for brexit moved straight on to campaigning to leave the UN and Nato which both require us to accept the norms of a central power right... no wait. Choosing to be part of Nato requires us to go to war even if we didn't want to, but somehow that's fine and having to limit toxins in paint etc because of the EU was jus
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I recognize that one - that's the argument from neo-liberalism.
There are other priorities for a country than maximize GDP growth at the cost of all other goals. Under this idea, anything which hinders maximal GDP growth rate is utterly evil and wrong, and that which maxes out that slider bar is obviously the correct way to go.
It's wrongheaded, and ruthless, and has led countries to ruin before. Ask Russia of the 1990s how well neo-liberalism worked out for them. There are real humans in these systems,
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You give up sovereignty with every trade deal and agreement you make. We're just exchanging an extremely beneficial set of rules with a less beneficial set.
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LOL. Beneficial set of rules? The UK will be able to set its own rules. Watch the UK set its tax rates juuuust low enough to make it worthwhile to set up shop there instead of the innovation-hostile EU. Then cherry-pick the world's educated people while keeping out the stupids (UK has quite enough of them already and adding more would be a tragedy - no more grooming gangs) and just watch the future.
The UK will be quick and nimble, able to fix problems that pop up, while the EU stumbles with its antiqu
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This says enough about you're political mindset to explain plenty about your views. We get it, you're pissed they didn't invite you to join their gang but you can't base every political decision you make on trying to get back at them for it.
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No, we really won't. You don't understand how trade agreements works, do you?
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Colin didn't vote to get rid of data protection rules either, but I suppose they have to go along with food standards so we can get a trade deal with the US.
Donâ(TM)t be evil (Score:2)
... so what happened here?
Did Google lose sight of this once vaunted credo?
Seems like the almighty buck is winning again, instead of doing good in the eyes of the users by adhering to more stringent (and welcome) protections for the privacy.
Corporates do as corporate does I guess..
UK Law (Score:4, Interesting)
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UK already has GDPR, it came into force last April. And yes, current US law is much weaker.
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The UK will scrap privacy laws to get trade deals. The US will demand access to our data and we will have to give it to them.
There is no need for a successor to GDPR anyway. EU rules don't work that way. Member states agree rules at the EU level but then implement them however they see fit in their own laws, i.e. the UK laws implementing it will not end unless parliament decides to scrap them.
So what doe we need to update (Score:2)
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Your IP address, and you need to the GPS chip in your devices to lie to the operating system. Also, never use Google Maps, it takes very few searches before they can guess your true location.
Concealing your true location from the greatest snoop in the world? Good luck with that.
Get out. (Score:2)
Get. Out.
While you still can. It's only a matter of time before the Tories get into a full swing, updated, & equally depressing re-run of Britain in the 1980s: Racism, corruption, cronyism, mismanagement, violent uprisings