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Comment by rusticpenn | Hacker News Reader

At what point does it make sense to take this to court?

When you have millions of dollars or millions of users to back you up.

You are not helpless as an individual. If the company wrongly disables your account and leaves you no other option, you are well within your power to fill out some paperwork and file a lawsuit. It should cost you <$1k but will cost a big company >$10k just to respond.

> It should cost you <$1k but will cost a big company >$10k just to respond.

And... let's just compare my personal finances to Google's finances.... carry the 1...

And then what? You cost them effectively nothing while you're out $1k. Are you prepared to keep spending to continue the lawsuit?

The point is you should never need to do this. The law should automatically ensure that you always have access to your data.

Today, denial of access to one's data ought to be a human rights matter.

Does it change things if you aren't paying the provider for the service?

When you have a trillion dollars stashed away. Then you wouldn't care about lawyer costs. That's the main reason big corps get away with doing what they are doing.

You would if laws demanded you always had to hand back users' data if you locked them out. That's the problem we don't have a proper legal framework to manage Google and other Big Tech.

In Europe there's no provision for GDPR rights to access to data to be removed on these non-grounds, so users would have the right to get access to their takeout.

Since Google's processes don't seem to give access to that, you might have to sue them. If they failed to show though, you should be able to get a default judgement eventually.

(note - GDPR is in some cases privately litigable, so you don't need to wait around for a snail's pace regulator - you can indeed sue for relief and get your legal costs back in the award. I'd expect a lawyer would take this case on a contingent basis given how clear-cut the GDPR is about your right to access your own data).

Europe has been really slow giving out fines. And even those fines are often less than a slap on the wrist. In France Google got fined $57mln for breach of GDPR. That's what Google makes in 3 hours.

That is why it is important to note that certain GDPR rights can be enforced yourself, without waiting on a regulator. Waiting on a regulator to bring the case is not your only option, since these are data subject rights, and the data subject (i.e. you) an sue directly.

Certain approved consumer groups are also able to do this as well - the regulators are too slow right now, but others are gearing up to start taking cases themselves.

You signed a binding arbitration agreement, didn’t you?

I thought agreements like that weren't binding if the person signing them didn't realize they were entering that agreement.

You don't remember that checkbox you clicked when registering for your account affirming that you definitely 100% read, understood, and agreed to be bound by Google's Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy?

In many jurisdictions arbitration clauses for consumers cannot be binding and can neither prevent them to sue in court.

Check your local laws.

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