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Comment by drcursor | Hacker News Reader

Is there a way to find out where my google account is hosted ?

I'm willing to bet your data is hosted in multiple locations based on the service you're using. I don't think it's as simple as "Oh John Smith's account is hosted in Lenoir, NC".

Of course it is. It's called backups, and being prepared. If one data center burns down or is taken offline for other reason your data needs to be somewhere else.

> If one data center burns down or is taken offline for other reason your data needs to be somewhere else.

Somewhere else doesn't necessarily need to be "in different jurisdiction"

No, but ideally (and especially for live failover datacenters) it should be in a different wide-area synchronous grid segment[1] to prevent issues in the event of large disasters. For datacenters in the EU that means having a backup outside the continental EU, which has meant Ireland or Great Britain if they want to stay within the EU jurisdiction. With the UK leaving that means just Ireland.

Other disaster recovery concerns also mean that having large geographical distance between datacenters is a good idea. This can lead to jurisdictional issues, which need to be addressed when building the system.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_grid#Wide_area_sync...

That's a good question. I tried to edit my details to check if there is a country to set but there isn't.

+1 on this question. Google has become a mire of EULA's and opacity, so getting data from THE data company is now nigh on to impossible.

As a matter of fact, it does not matter that much as Google just copies it to the US. From their “Compliance” page: https://privacy.google.com/businesses/compliance/

“ We continue to offer a range of international data-transfer mechanisms and we are certified under the EU - U.S. and Swiss - U.S. Privacy Shield frameworks, which are a legal mechanism to enable the transfer of personal data from the EEA and Switzerland to the US, where certified organizations guarantee to provide a level of protection in line with EU data protection law. We also offer EU-approved Model Contract Clauses for some services.

“We will continue to monitor the evolution of international data-transfer mechanisms under the GDPR, and are committed to having a lawful basis for data transfers in compliance with applicable data protection laws.”

I find it interesting they do not specify what data is internationally transferred, and that they “monitor the evolution” of mechanisms that are compliant with the GDPR, but never say they themselves are compliant. They only position themselves in the light of a Data Processor of the GDPR, but not the actual Data Controller (eg Google Search).

It all smells very fishy.

certified organizations guarantee to provide a level of protection in line with EU data protection law

"We have top men on it."

"Who?"

"Top. Men."

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