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by googlryas 1460 days ago
Why is that not fully legal? Wouldn't the same law prevent Google USA from querying PII data from Google Italia?
2 comments

If Google US can access the data, that means the US government by extension can also. This is exactly what GDPR doesn’t want happening. More details in this open letter by Max Schrems “ the Court has clearly held that US surveillance laws and practices violate Article 7, 8 and 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights” https://noyb.eu/en/open-letter-future-eu-us-data-transfers
Italian laws do not apply to Google USA.
The Italian market doesn’t have to apply to Google USA either.

Companies can always choose to ignore a specific nation’s laws[1], they don’t still get access to that nations markets. At the borders the nation state is the one with the guns and firewalls

[1] unless you piss off a nation that can project global power, lol if you piss off China or America

First time I've heard of China projecting "global power". Are there cases of it happening?
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1714248/more-chinese....

Chinese and American police forces both operate abroad and like to flex their power. The NYPD was in a similar situation post 9/11 when they started trying to police nearby states and when they sent operatives to other countries even against their own federal government [1].

Russias also sent operatives overseas in some fairly public assassinations. It’s not really surprising that China does this, it appears to be the default operating procedure of powerful countries

[1] http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/the-stream/the-stre...

All over Africa, in a more heo political sense. Also along the new silk road all the way to Europe. Just to name two.
Apple complying with Chinese laws, and providing Chinese government access to private data.

Google, Facebook etc. being blocked in China.

etc.

Oh yes they do. GA is part of a company that also sells services in Italy. They should follow the law if they want to keep earning that non-US Adwords money that allows GA to remain free.
Not generally, but they do apply to Google Italia, who would not legally be allowed to respond to requests from Google USA for European PII.
Yes, the Italian law that prohibits sending data abroad applies to Google Italia, but Google USA is submitted to the USA law, that says that the USA government can request any data from Google Italia and they are required to get it.

So the existence of Google USA makes Google Italia operation illegal.

...in USA.
Well, depends, fundamentally it's a paradox.

Either US company get's the data from the Italian one, making the Italian operation illegal in Italy

Or

The US company doesn't get the data from the Italian one (despite ownership), making the US company illegal in the US.

I don't think anyone is under the illusion that the latter option is chosen when push comes to shove.

But someone will have to foot the bill when their branch in Italy is fined by the government for violating Italian law