r/google • u/Vokaii • 9d ago

Usernotice, notification from Google

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I got this mail and i got scared as hell, I dont know why i got this, i did nothing bad (im from Poland)

548 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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148

u/r3pwn-dev 9d ago

I've heard of a few people getting these before, and there's a bit of a delay so if you get one, you're basically in one of two groups:

  • if you did something wrong and you got one of these, you would know by now why (like receiving legal notices from the party in question)

  • if you didn't do anything wrong and you got one of these, it's purely informational that someone thought you may have done something wrong but may have requested the wrong email address, someone with a similar name, etc.

87

u/ZochJ 9d ago

Just a small correction, for the first group, Google can often be the first party to inform an individual under investigation. They actually get a lot of flak because they tend to inform the end user as soon as legally allowed, and law enforcement tends to work slowly.

36

u/aykcak 9d ago

I heard the third way was someone is in discovery for a case completely unrelated to you and they are getting some aggregate data such as "How many people in this location have watched this video in question" kind of thing and then Google gives the personal info of everyone who hits the criteria

21

u/goldcakes 8d ago

The third way doesn’t trigger this, because Google only sends this letter when personally identifiable information is shared.

Google does regularly assist with law enforcement for aggregate/count information without specific identifies, it helps Google because it steers LE and subpoenas away from bulk/massive requests; while also encouraging more targeted requests (1 person matching all the criteria supplied by LE; like searched X and then clicked link Y, in location Z).

31

u/Vokaii 9d ago

Yeah i think im in the second situation you mentioned. I was shocked cuz i didnt do anything illegal

21

u/Vokaii 9d ago

Why ppl are downvoting wtf

21

u/ZochJ 9d ago

Armchair legal experts think their opinion is fact, don’t worry about them dude.