4 ms·

Is it possible to file a case for financial loss, which is absolutely huge for the unfortunate Google customer?

g_p 6y ago
Under GDPR right to access your own data (in Europe), you could sue over Google's refusal to honour your data rights. Your request to use data rights can be made through any means, including social media message funnily enough! You can privately litigate breaches of GDPR, and I imagine the court would be keen to award you costs when the judge discovers the kafka-esque situation going down. Oh, and ensuring you receive your takeout as they are legally required to give. Not sure if there's grounds for loss, as the terms and conditions are pretty tightly wrapped to say they can block you at any time and you're fine with that... Not to say that should be allowed either!
- andylynch 6y ago
  GDPR article 22 (Automated decision-making and profiling) may also apply here - I would think for many people this kind of situation has the kind of ‘similarly significant effect‘ which would trigger a right for human intervention.
  - g_p 6y ago
    Absolutely. I suspect if this hit a court, Google would decline to say why the account was banned. A judge would then struggle to see this as not being an automated unaccountable decision. A good point well made. Several grounds here.
- klohto 6y ago
  I was thinking the exact same thing, but Google isn't stupid either. So far all of these lockouts have happening to US folks, but this one is from UK. I'm not sure if Google made a misstep in this case or they found a loophole and no longer care about GDPR.
  - Uberphallus 6y ago
    GDPR no longer applies to UK.
    - g_p 6y ago
      The UK's Data Protection Act (2018) is pretty much a copy-paste of the GDPR, and it is to remain in effect - the UK had a fair hand in writing the GDPR itself, and has passed it as its own implementing law. So while it's not "the GDPR", the rights it gives are almost word-for-word identical.
lodovic 6y ago
I'm sure their TOS covers that

g_p 6y ago

Under GDPR right to access your own data (in Europe), you could sue over Google's refusal to honour your data rights. Your request to use data rights can be made through any means, including social media message funnily enough! You can privately litigate breaches of GDPR, and I imagine the court would be keen to award you costs when the judge discovers the kafka-esque situation going down. Oh, and ensuring you receive your takeout as they are legally required to give. Not sure if there's grounds for loss, as the terms and conditions are pretty tightly wrapped to say they can block you at any time and you're fine with that... Not to say that should be allowed either!

andylynch 6y ago
GDPR article 22 (Automated decision-making and profiling) may also apply here - I would think for many people this kind of situation has the kind of ‘similarly significant effect‘ which would trigger a right for human intervention.
- g_p 6y ago
  Absolutely. I suspect if this hit a court, Google would decline to say why the account was banned. A judge would then struggle to see this as not being an automated unaccountable decision. A good point well made. Several grounds here.
klohto 6y ago
I was thinking the exact same thing, but Google isn't stupid either. So far all of these lockouts have happening to US folks, but this one is from UK. I'm not sure if Google made a misstep in this case or they found a loophole and no longer care about GDPR.
- Uberphallus 6y ago
  GDPR no longer applies to UK.
  - g_p 6y ago
    The UK's Data Protection Act (2018) is pretty much a copy-paste of the GDPR, and it is to remain in effect - the UK had a fair hand in writing the GDPR itself, and has passed it as its own implementing law. So while it's not "the GDPR", the rights it gives are almost word-for-word identical.

lodovic 6y ago

I'm sure their TOS covers that