Whilst this is on the front of hackernews there is one element to this that intrigues me...And that's how this is compliant with the GDPR?
For example, as far as I am aware this isn't information that is included in Google Takeout, nor is it included in any SAR that you may ask for. There is no ability to have a list of comments you've made and a choice to delete them. Even if you delete your account I am not sure these pointers are actually removed from the database.
Google collects so much data across so many vast areas I am not sure how they can ever be truly GDPR compliant and in accordance with the law as it's written.
For example, how do I delete my Google Fit data? It is seemingly impossible, of course this is where you have to ask them to. How about deleting every single edit history across all of my documents, or a specific edit in a specific document? Will they be able to remove that unique entry in the edit history?
I do know they store edit history for an indefinite period of time, I've accessed documents 6 years old (never edited again, unopened for many years) and the edit history is still perfectly intact. I wonder how many PB's of data Google has of pure and utter data-rot, and why they don't have systems in place to clean that up (especially old, inactive data like document comments or revision history).
I imagine every single record Google creates and logs must be liable to the GDPR, so of the trillions of data points they have on their systems it must be a pain to try and ensure any of them can be modified if required to do so.
This feature most likely predates the GDPR and it's just an oversight that a toggle hasn't been implemented for it.
However, Google has demonstrated their bad faith and unwillingness to comply with the GDPR with their non-compliant consent popup so I would be very surprised if they suddenly decide to spend resources on modifying this feature to make it compliant.
For example, as far as I am aware this isn't information that is included in Google Takeout, nor is it included in any SAR that you may ask for. There is no ability to have a list of comments you've made and a choice to delete them. Even if you delete your account I am not sure these pointers are actually removed from the database.
Google collects so much data across so many vast areas I am not sure how they can ever be truly GDPR compliant and in accordance with the law as it's written.
For example, how do I delete my Google Fit data? It is seemingly impossible, of course this is where you have to ask them to. How about deleting every single edit history across all of my documents, or a specific edit in a specific document? Will they be able to remove that unique entry in the edit history?
I do know they store edit history for an indefinite period of time, I've accessed documents 6 years old (never edited again, unopened for many years) and the edit history is still perfectly intact. I wonder how many PB's of data Google has of pure and utter data-rot, and why they don't have systems in place to clean that up (especially old, inactive data like document comments or revision history).
I imagine every single record Google creates and logs must be liable to the GDPR, so of the trillions of data points they have on their systems it must be a pain to try and ensure any of them can be modified if required to do so.