My article was 1 on Hackernews yesterday and it was an unpleasant experience

I wrote an article on the 1st of May about Google updating the country associated with my account automatically. I cross-posted it here also.

In the article, I raised some concerns about this practice. I didn't say Google should be doing X or Y. I didn't say that they made the right or wrong choice based on my exact circumstances. I just stated what happened, sharing the info I was comfortable sharing, and outlining what was unclear about the situation to me.

I tried to find more information in Google's Terms of Service to understand what the conditions are for this switch. I didn't find anything substantive. The conclusion for me was that I don't really know what the actual criteria or rationale for this behaviour is.

I wrote the article to raise awareness to others about country association, the association may be right or wrong for them if this process happens automatically. Certainly if you use a VPN, then your IP address is a less reliable indicator of your location, so that is one way that Google may get it wrong.

On Dev.to, one commenter suggested I switch to FOSS applications, and one commenter said he encountered this issue also and Google incorrectly associated his account with another country. All was civil and with an intention to be helpful.

Incidentally, I use mostly FOSS. I try to choose software that respects my privacy. That led to me move away from Google products a couple of years ago, but I am not all the way there yet.

Yesterday, I received an email from someone telling me that my article was number 1 on Hackernews and asked (politely) if the change of country for my account was correct.

I made the mistake of looking at the thread! I was glad it brought some awareness to people about a matter that may impact their data privacy, but I found the debate disconcerting.

Some people were discussing residency status. Some people were discussing GDPR and its jurisdiction. Some people were venting about Google. Some people were defending Google. Some people were making unpleasant inferences about me. No-one appeared to be focused on finding out exactly what Google's policy is, which is the crux of the article.

The thread was so silly, I didn't want to get involved. I just added this clarification at the end of the article on my website for subsequent people who would read my article.

I guess this is a more sensitive topic for some people than I imagined, and it stirred up some feelings. I find it a bit scary that people get agitated and direct it at other people.

I am not the story. I just raised a concern about a practice and pointed out that I couldn't find answers to my questions. I make my own decisions about the software and services I use, and so should you.

I wish people would lead with a desire to understand; not lead with judgement. I wish people would respect each other more. I wish people would look for constructive ways to move things forward. That's all I try to do.

Please don't post my articles on Hackernews! If there is a next time, I will ignore anything related to it.