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Google is selling all my personal information in Google Domains to Squarespace?
- moneal 3y agoI was bummed about Stadia but as a developer this really hurts. Feel betrayed and that I let down others that I recommended Google Domain.
- solardev 3y agoEveryone makes the mistake of trusting Google once or twice. At least in this case it's just a domain name, easily transferred anywhere. It would suck to depend on a GCP bespoke service only to have it disappear next week.
- ocdtrekkie 3y agoThis is kinda a fool me once, shame on you, fool me two hundred and some odd times, shame on me, sort of situation. Everyone believes they know the hard line Google will not cross for shutting down products, and everyone eventually is wrong.
- abawany 3y agoIt was the best domain registrar I had ever used - fast, streamlined, and convenient. So of course Google, the GM of Silicon Valley (1), had to sell it off or shut it down. 1: GM also has a reputation for getting a product just right and then killing it.
- hendersoon 3y agoSame. I'm honestly shocked they're getting rid of the service. It's core infrastructure, cheap as chips to run, and binds people to using Google. Same reason why Microsoft hosts domains. You have your mail, storage, office suite, photos, chat, etc, hosted by Google, they made it easy to host your domain there working with all those services, and all that vertically integration kept us comfortably in their warm embrace. Now they're selling it because... why? Only theory that holds water is it doesn't make _enough_ money. Well sure it isn't a huge revenue source but it isn't losing money either, and the intangibles felt like they more than justified keeping it in-house. Hopefully the inside story comes out, as I would be fascinated to hear their thought process.
- duringmath 3y agoGuess that's how these deals work. Would you rather they shut it down?
- teraflop 3y agoThe latest tweet in the thread already deals with this objection: > And for those saying: "well, better than shutting down Google Domains" > Google Domains was profitable, I confirmed internally. Growing extremely fast (~$120M ARR now, ~growing $40M/year) Which, I mean, obviously the product isn't so unprofitable that it needs to be shut down, or nobody would be interested in buying it. Maybe Google Domains isn't the company's most profitable product, and maybe Google would be able to make even more money by allocating those resources elsewhere. But the point that people are upset about is that Google is going against a principle it had publicly committed to. Principles don't count for much if you only follow them when there's no cost to doing so.
- solardev 3y agoWait, what principle did they commit to? I thought they've been shutting down products for a long long time now?
- teraflop 3y agoSorry if I wasn't sufficiently clear. The principle I was talking about was this one, from Sundar Pichai, referenced in the tweet thread: > To make privacy real, we give you clear, meaningful choices around your data. All while staying true to two unequivocal policies: that Google will never sell any personal information to third parties, and that you get to decide how your information is used. The parent commenter was presenting a false dichotomy, as if either selling the product or shutting it down were the only options. But there's no reason that has to be the case. And even if it was -- which seems unlikely to me -- shutting down the product and giving users the option to switch to a different provider would be more ethical than just selling their data without asking for consent.
- 3y ago
- whalesalad 3y agoNo way in heck Google is turning your personal information into revenue? Color me absolutely flabbergasted.
- TylerE 3y agoBecause that's not what's happening. FTA: "Once regulatory approvals are obtained and the transaction closes, the billing and support services for Google Workspace (including G Suite) subscriptions currently billed by Google Domains will be managed by Squarespace."
- teraflop 3y agoIt is exactly what's happening. Google is handing over the personal information of its subscribers, and the responsibility for their accounts, to Squarespace. In return, Squarespace is giving Google a bunch of money (revenue).
- TylerE 3y agoThe distinction I would draw is that the headline implies this is selling it for marketing purposes, not subcontracting for admin/support.
- teraflop 3y agoThis is different from subcontracting, though, because Google Domains is being sold in its entirety and will no longer be owned or controlled by Google. Once the data is in Squarespace's hands, what's stopping them from using it for marketing purposes? The customer data obviously has marketing value. Google's announcement says that after the "transition" is complete, customer data will be handled subject to Squarespace's privacy policy, which (naturally) gives Squarespace permission to use it for marketing.
- MAGZine 3y agodoes selling a business release the business from it's contractual obligations (including EULA/data privacy+processing) to its customers?
- tyingq 3y agoThis bit in the tweet chain was more interesting to me: Google Domains *was* profitable, I confirmed internally. Growing extremely fast (~$120M ARR now, ~growing $40M/year)
- VikingCoder 3y agoThat means it had revenue that was growing. We don't know what the expenses were. It's still possible it wasn't profitable.
- koolba 3y agoWe’re taking about a database that stores on the order of 1KB per customer. The product operating costs round down to zero per customer. The only real expenses would be dealing with customer service and card fraud. While it’s possible that those costs could be substantial, Google isn’t exactly known for throwing a lot of money at customer service.
- dijit 3y agoInternally; I believe google is super averse to anything that scales linearly or faster than linearly. - at least as a rule. So it doesnt matter, i speculate, if it was earning $1M in profit a year for 10M domains if they need to employ 50 call center staff - and for the next 10M domains they need to hire another 50 call center staff— I think they would rather pull the plug. Which I personally would never do, but, it is in line with other decisions they’ve made and how I have heard key people talk about googles leadership externally.
- deelowe 3y ago> Internally; I believe google is super averse to anything that scales linearly or faster than linearly. - at least as a rule. This is 1000% true. The culture is that diminishing returns means linear scale will eventually turn into a cost center. Execs only care about 10x initiatives. My understanding is that Larry personally canceled gFiber b/c the margins, while profitable, were too thin.
- yieldcrv 3y agoReminds me of how cars and houses have transfer taxes and title change information that can be circumvented by simply selling the LLC that owns said car or house respectively
- jcz_nz 3y agoThis is a dumb take. No, you cannot “buy” people’s personal data (name, phone #, address, email, etc) from Google. Yes, sale of a business unit usually includes the customer contracts, leads and historical data of that business unit. No, there isn’t anything nefarious about that, and every other business you transacted with does the same thing. Yeah sure there is a cottage industry trying to use google’s data to augment other data sources, but that’s not “Google selling my personal data”.
- onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago> This is a dumb take. Coming from the guy who yesterday talked about how much of a reputational risk selling Google Domains is... It's ironic he doesn't see tweeting something this dumb as a reputational risk...
- hendersoon 3y agoSquarespace is giving Google money, and in exchange they're getting my personal information so they can bill me. That seems extremely clear-cut. Not sure if you're talking about some obscure legality interpretation but in plain speech, that is what they're doing.
- gretch 3y agoNothing has happened yet, and it’s easy for anyone who wants to opt out to do so. Transfer your domain and close your google domain account. The bigger point though is that you are right, but it also applies to literally every business sale ever. What’s the point of talking about it now? Do you think GitHub sold your data to Microsoft?
- hendersoon 3y agoThey totally did, as did many other acquired companies, but (AFAIK) Github didn't have "we won't sell your data" as a core tenet of the company carried off the mountaintop inscribed on stone tablets like Google. I'm not one of those enraged over this, but it is both perplexing and disappointing.
- paxys 3y agoGoogle is "selling" your billing data, which Squarespace is not allowed to do anything with other than bill you for the service they provide. This exact data already goes through many intermediaries in many different countries for the payment to successfully settle. So will you also complain that Google is selling your data to Visa/Chase/Stripe/PayPal and the hundreds of other companies they have agreements with?
- mvdtnz 3y agoWhat could be more personal than billing data?
- kyawzazaw 3y agohealthcare
- noizejoy 3y agoArguably there’s pretty meaningful intersection between those two sets of information - e.g. when purchasing medicine with a credit card. Edited to add example.
- CydeWeys 3y agoI mean, I'm pretty liberal with my billing data? I buy stuff online all the time, and thanks to credit cards it's pretty easy to handle the situation of billing data getting stolen by reversing fraudulent charges and getting new billing data.
- teraflop 3y ago> which Squarespace is not allowed to do anything with other than bill you for the service they provide. Where are you getting this from? Google says that Squarespace's privacy policy will be applicable, and that policy gives Squarespace the right to do plenty of other things with user data: https://www.squarespace.com/privacy https://www.squarespace.com/privacy
- kyrra 3y ago
- zerkten 3y agoI feel like this is one of the things that Gergely has sensationalized recently to drive attention. This started with a bunch of tweets which amounted to "why wasn't I told about this immediately". I suspect that this decision was made at exec levels with the lower levels asked to work out the details which obviously resulted in a delay. As a Google Domains customer, this wasn't particularly problematic. It's just a big company getting its ducks in a row which takes time. It's self-evident that acquisitions can happen and that data will be transferred as a result. Most most attention is typically on other aspects of how Google handles data and this seems like an attempt to latch onto that. I personally feel better about basic data security and processing under Google than I would under a company like Squarespace. I know Google have faced nation state attackers so they've got some security chops. I feel that they'll enforce reasonable contractual requirements on the purchaser, but those won't override Google being a safer bet with the basics.
- aaomidi 3y ago> It's self-evident that acquisitions can happen and that data will be transferred as a result. Most most attention is typically on other aspects of how Google handles data and this seems like an attempt to latch onto that. I mean it's not that surprising though? The better option would've been to allow the user to opt out of transfer to squarespace and move their domain to somewhere else in the meantime?
- justrealist 3y ago> allow the user to opt out of transfer to squarespace and move their domain to somewhere else in the meantime I don't mean to downplay the overall idiotic nature of this sale, but you've always been free to transfer your domains out of Google Domains at any time (or any other registrar for that matter).
- remram 3y agoThe fact that Google Domains has still not sent any email to customers kind of goes against this. You can easily transfer out if you happened to hear about the sale early enough on social media.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jayonsoftware 3y agoIs the https://domains.google.com/ https://domains.google.com/ service going away ? if so why are they still selling domains ?
- awill 3y agoThe key point to me is that this data hasn't been sold yet. If I had any domains in Google, I'd migrate them immediately.
- timcavel 3y ago[dead]
- jstummbillig 3y agoIt's not a sale of information to a third party. It's the sale of a business and transferring the business to the first party. Businesses buying and selling businesses happens, all the time. Customer data is being transferred in the process, all the time. Is there anything noteworthy going on here, or are we just confused/pretending to be confused about the world and looking to put a spin on it?
- JohnFen 3y agoThat sounds like a distinction without a difference to me. If I (the first party) have given data to a company (the second party), and that company is sold to someone else (the third party), then my data was sold to a third party. > Customer data is being transferred in the process, all the time. Right. Being common doesn't mean it isn't problematic, though. This is one of the reasons to minimize the amount of data you reveal to any company.
- jstummbillig 3y ago> Being common doesn't mean it isn't problematic, though. Certainly. However, taking a common business/law(?) issue and making it a Google issue is lame. EDIT: > That sounds like a distinction without a difference to me. > If I (the first party) have given data to a company (the second party), and that company is sold to someone else (the third party), then my data was sold to a third party. Well. I can see where you are coming from, but we have to be able to differentiate between a) an ongoing 1p<->2p relationship, where 2p is selling data to a 3p b) a relationship, where the entire 2p gets replaced These two setups are clearly not equal. There is a distinction. And a difference.
- JohnFen 3y agoWhat's the difference? In both cases, your data is now in the possession of a third party that you didn't intend to be in possession of it.
- deleted 3y ago
- alpenbazi 3y ago[flagged]
- eeixlk 3y agoThere is no billing / login / ecosystem convenience advantage to using google for any service, because once that service is killed off it is no longer convenient. They decided not to end service and allow you to migrate to your provider of choice, but to sell your account to another provider. Meaning your account was not valuable enough to continue service, but was valuable enough to sell to a third party. They started this whole process by aggressively buying the .dev TLD domains and forcing TLS, breaking tooling that used that domain for development (even if that wasn't a great idea). All for what? Too much ad money and no vision.
- CydeWeys 3y agoFwiw you're confusing Google Domains and Google Registry. Two completely different teams and products.
- jspann 3y agoI didn't even know Squarespace was buying Google Domains. This was an interesting way to find out.
- peoplearepeople 3y agoWho is the go-to domain provider to migrate to now?
- jarym 3y agoTo me the oddest thing is Google Cloud Domains is still going to be around (it has to stay because the other cloud vendors offer the same). Why didn’t they transfer Google Domains stuff to their own cloud outfit?
- Glyptodon 3y agoThis only applies to people who registered their domain through Google itself, right?
- adoxyz 3y agoI can't believe Google hasn't sent any information to Domains users so far. All I've learned about this has come from Twitter, HN, etc. Google Domains website doesn't mention the sale at all. Seems sketchy af.
- paxys 3y agoThey are legally obligated to tell investors the minute the deal is signed. It is not going to close for many months (maybe even over a year), so there's plenty of time to craft customer-facing communications. I'm sure they still have to finalize a lot of details about how the transfer will actually work.
- unsigned_char 3y agoSo, you’re saying that we’ll have months to find another registrar and complete the transfers, before they start sharing our data with this company? Just trying to understand the urgency.
- paxys 3y agoYes
- verst 3y agoProbably lesser known here is the Charleston Road Registry, Google's entity which manages their TLDs: "Google Registry is currently offering .app, .dev, .dad, .phd, .prof, .esq, .foo, .zip, .mov, .nexus, .page, .new, .how, .soy, .day, .boo and .みんな. We also own .ads, .eat, .fly, .here, .ing, and .meme among others. We'll be using some of the domains we own, such as .google, .youtube, and .chrome, for Google products, so they won't be open to the public." It seems Google will continue working with registrar partners, but not operate a registrar themselves anymore (Google Domains). It does not seem like anything will change for this wholly owned registry entity. In the future we'll be renewing our .dev domains with other registrars who themselves register the domains with Google Registry / Charleston Road Registry as the TLD administrators. https://www.registry.google/faqs/ https://www.registry.google/faqs/