How to check the country that Google associates with your account, and how to change

[harlan4096]

Some Google customers are receiving emails by the Internet giant currently that inform them about an update made to their Google Account".

In the email, Google states that it is associating customers with a country or region, and that the associated country is being changed in 30 days.

The email lists the current and new country that is associated with the customer.

Google claims that it does so for determining which "Google company" is responsible for the account, and which Terms of Service govern the relationship.

Here is the email that users may receive. This particular customer would have the associated country changed from Germany to Malaysia.
 

We associate your Google Account with a country (or region) so that we can better provide our services to you. This association is used to determine two things: The Google company that provides the services, processes your information and is responsible for complying with applicable privacy laws

The version of the Terms of Service that governs our relationship, which can vary depending on local laws.

Your country association will change within 30 days:
from Germany to Malaysia

Bear in mind that Google services are essentially the same, regardless of your country association. Also, any purchased content and banking information that you might have in your Google Account will remain the same.

The association is important for customers, as some countries or regions may offer better privacy and legal protections than others.

Check the associated country of a Google account and change it

You can open this link to open the Country Association inquiry page on the Google website.

It may display the associated country for the Google account, and enables you to request it to be changed if it is not correct.

In my case, Google did not list any country, but the majority of Google customers should see a country listed on the page. A click on the "Google's Terms of Service" link may display a specific country version as well. In my case, Germany was shown, which is correct.

The very same page has a form that you may submit to Google to request that the associated country is changed.

You select a country or region under "where do you live" and then one or multiple of the reasons for the change. Reasons include traveling a lot, using VPNs, moving to another country recently, or none of the above. The form lacks a text field to provide a custom explanation.

Google informs you that it may take weeks before you will get a reply after submitting the form, and that there is no guarantee that the country will be changed. If Google believes that the country that it associated with the account is correct, it will keep the association.
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