Google, the renowned American multinational technology company specializing in internet related services and products, has reportedly announced plans to shift its British users’ accounts out of control of EU privacy controllers and place them under jurisdiction of U.S.

As per sources the shift, triggered by the exit of Britain from EU, would leave sensitive data of several millions of British users with lesser protection and in easy reach of the British law enforcement.

Google is also planning to make its so that all British users would be required to accept new terms of the Google service, which also includes the new jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, Ireland, where Google as well as a number of other U.S. technology organizations have their European headquarters, will be remaining in the European Union, which boasts of some of the most aggressive information and data-protection rules in the world, the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).

Google has chosen to move its British clients outside the Irish jurisdiction since it is not clear whether Britain would adhere to GDPR or would implement other guidelines that might influence the handling of user information.

If British users had their respective data stored in Ireland, then it would become more complicated for authorities across Britain to retrieve it during criminal investigations.

Through the current U.S. Cloud Act, however, the process of acquiring data from U.S. organizations by British authorities is anticipated to get much easier. Britain and the U.S. are additionally on track to negotiate a more extensive trade agreement.

Past that, the United States has one of the weakest data privacy protection regulations of any significant economy, with no expansive law regardless of long periods of advocacy by consumer protection groups.

As per sources, the British privacy rules, which track GDPR for time being, might continue to apply to that government’s requests for data from the U.S. headquarters of Google.
 

Source credit: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/google-users-in-uk-to-lose-eu-data-protection-sources-say-1.4178866