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The problem of being a massive company is that everyone wants to sue you. They could want to sue you for money. Or maybe sue you because they think you are ba
by kyrra 3y ago
The problem of being a massive company is that everyone wants to sue you. They could want to sue you for money. Or maybe sue you because they think you are bad. Whatever the reason, when you're Google's size, you need to make sure you're compliant with every local regulation before you launch anything or someone may come after you.
Googler, opinions are my own.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- withinboredom 3y agoSuch a US-centric way of thinking. Not every country is as sue-happy as the US.
- killerdhmo 3y agolol dude, Google is being sued in like a dozen countries https://qz.com/google-is-in-a-world-of-trouble-from-governments-everyw-1849708614 https://qz.com/google-is-in-a-world-of-trouble-from-governme... (and this article is from last year)
- skinkestek 3y agoAnd for very good reasons. The way to avoid lawsuits in civilized countries is to avoid breaking the laws east and west. Start with the GDPR: There is no competent lawyer that doesn't understand the basics of GDPR, there are only companies that are testing if they can get away by playing dumb.
- scarmig 3y agoAvoiding breaking the law, here, means not allowing users in those countries to use services.
- smolder 3y agoThat, or adjusting their business model in those regions so that pervasive surveillance and privacy invasion aren't their core product. Apparently that's so hard that GDPR detractors can't even acknowledge it as a possibility! Honestly, I see it as a red flag that someone is arguing in bad faith.
- yftsui 3y agoBig companies would love to know what countries that they will never get sued and deal all shady stuff there, does it exist?
- ajmurmann 3y ago"shady stuff" like relying on users to be able to use their browsers cookie settings.
- VWWHFSfQ 3y agoWhat absolute nonsense. This is a list of countries just off the top of my head that has sued Google in the last decade: United States European Union (which consists of multiple member states) Australia France Germany Italy Spain Russia India Brazil South Korea Turkey Canada
- withinboredom 3y agoMy current country isn't on that list. Obviously, you're missing well over a hundred countries on that list.
- wtf_is_up 3y agoGoal posts: moved
- pb7 3y agoIn today’s episode of “people from countries that create nothing whining about not having access to other countries’ technologies”…
- withinboredom 3y agoI suspect you like watching DVDs and using your Bluetooth headphones while connected to your WiFi?
- HarHarVeryFunny 3y agoThe members of the EU are countries, not states (& the EU itself is a political/economic alliance, not a country).
- CptFribble 3y ago"State" in this context is the same as the state in "head of state," AKA "a nation or territory considered as an organized political community under one government." Other examples of this usage are "nation-state" and "city-state." It is common to refer to the members of the EU as "member states."
- mywittyname 3y agoThe billions of dollars in fines that EU countries have levied against Google for various complaints in the past decade or so indicate the opposite.
- fnordpiglet 3y agoBut many are anti US tech regulatory happy.
- PavleMiha 3y agoGoogle isn’t worried about individuals suing them, they’re worried about governments or entities like the EU fining them
- skinkestek 3y agoIf that worries Google, they should fix the cookie options on the Google I/O page on the frontpage. It is wildly noncompliant, and Google should be sued over it like they were over the same thing in YouTube in France.
- freedomben 3y ago> If that worries Google, they should fix the cookie options on the Google I/O page on the frontpage. > It is wildly noncompliant, and Google should be sued over it like they were over the same thing in YouTube in France. this really reinforces GP's point
- feanaro 3y agoIt does not since Google is maliciously and purposefully non-compliant with that one. It instead reinforces the point that they don't care too much about being sued.
- wissio 3y agoGoogle is the only company that does this. Even product pages are geo-dodged in a similar fashion, as if the technical specs for a Pixel phone shouldn't be readable outside of some approved areas and the user is silently redirected to an unrelated page. It's quite surprising.
- lxgr 3y agoMore than once, I've had to use a VPN to order a Google device from abroad (shipment to country A, paid with a credit card from country A, while currently physically located in neighboring country B). It's beyond ridiculous. At least the Google Store now has a country selection switch, but I suspect that that also only happened due to new EU regulations requiring them to do so.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- simon_acca 3y agoSurprising that when it came time to restructure they didn’t adopt a model where the parent company (alphabet) owns all of the infrastructure and provide services to many independent smaller initiatives that would then be much less constrained. If they are unwilling to let go of the Google brand (understandable!) then the parent company perhaps should have been called Google.
- tasty_freeze 3y agoI'm always surprised when people that work at company X talks about practices at company X. Even innocent sounding replies can surface later and cause legal or PR headaches for the company. If one person out of 10,000 says something about XYZ, it is way too easy for it to taken as the truth, adding even more burden the legal/PR problems that every big company is constantly managing.
- HlessClaudesman 3y agoHow is fragmenting the internet good for Google?