Privacy & Google Reviews

TheGlossy

Hi all,

On Wednesday last week, I left a negative Google review after an incident I had at a store overseas during my trip. The review was very polite, but depicted the facts as they happened. I obviously used my Google account to leave the review, but I don't have my real name or any of my identity information on that account. The name is something frivolous. On Thursday, I was still overseas and saw a connection on my Gmail account from Ireland marked as "authorized application". I thought it was a bit weird, but didn't think much of it until Friday when someone from the Google Policy & Legal Investigations team in Ireland looked at my LinkedIn profile (with all their details on display).

I got a notification yesterday that my review was ultimately removed.

Now, I think this is a severe privacy breach considering the review was negative, but not violent/defamatory/etc... Based on my Google account, Google and the store would have had no way to find out my real identity and certainly not my LinkedIn since a) I don't have my real name on my Google account b) my Google account is not linked to any app (LinkedIn etc...) except for Airbnb and it just so happened that I had an Airbnb email laying around in Gmail.

The review simply depicted by exact experience in the store without identifying the concerned staff or using any derogatory language. I don't care that it was removed (though truthful), but I do care that Google was intrusive enough to find out my LinkedIn by any means and even go as far as allowing an employee to look at it with their full details on display. It can't be a coincidence. I honestly feel incredibly uneasy about this because I left a review based on a personal experience and they ended up digging far more than necessary.

Any advice or has it ever happened to anyone?

Philipmcnill

Practically it is not so easy to remove Google reviews by 3rd party. If the Google team was asked to remove your negative review in 99% of cases they would refuse. Unless there was something in review against their language policy. A friend of mine receive a negative review from the man he was not even his customer. Google team refused to remove that review anyway. they explained that he should answer that comment and that's it.

Now. You should report the illegal activity with this tool: https://support.google.com/a/answer/9303036?hl=en

Electric Gypsy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058233147/privacy-google-reviews

Were most of the other reviews positive? Not to sound like I'm nit picking here, but why does it bother you that the google employee's full details were on display? Is it possible to look at someone's linkedin with full details on display? Could you see that employee's name?

Electric Gypsy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118650039#Comment_118650039

I've often wondered how come businesses have so many positive reviews! Isn't there a saying that if someone has a positive experience that they'll tell one person, but if they have a negative experience, that they'll tell ten people.

spaceHopper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119864842#Comment_119864842

I left a negative amazon review once and they took it down. Some nonsense about how I worded it.... basically their bread and butter is sales or paid advertising so if the customer spends enough money on google or amazon there is a good chance they can get it taken down

Electric Gypsy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120004184#Comment_120004184

Amazon yes, but google? Google isn't for spending money really. What if you left a negative review about amazon on google. Why would that be in googles interest to take that down?

bartkingcole

This is an issue and means that Google reviews cannot be trusted. If a business advertises on Google do they get to challenge negative reviews?

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058233147/privacy-google-reviews

Your linkedIn profile is publicly accessible information. Someone from Google looked at your LI profile. Are you sure it was in relation to your review?