Google's bureaucratic system denies helping a woman in another country

Community Blog
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:-1: Google :-1: has created a system that cares less about the persecution of non-us citizens

Note:
on the 1st of April,
Google has finally removed the photos, and the young woman is ecstatic. it only took 2 weeks.
I am glad none the less, she is safe now.
Google should fix their customer help system!

I came to the united states at a young age, from a non-democratic violent country ruled by a religious dictatorship full of bureaucracy and corruption. Today I am faced with a similarly blind corrupt and bureaucratic system of rule, that offer nothing more than promises

I have been calling Google helpline as well google-business helpline for the last few days, without any results, I was trying to get pictures remover from a google place to pin, this place is a restaurant I own, the restaurant is in a country that falls outside googles eligibility guidelines (basically the country has been under U.S economic sanctions, the US eased economic sanctions late 2017 ) the country is Sudan (my country of origin ). Thus the listing can’t be claimed by anyone.

The pictures I mentioned belong to a very tech-limited woman a “novice”, her pictures are privet, the pictures may not seem privet to a western culture, but to that part of the world these pictures are very privet, the young woman can face persecution or even violence.
she uploaded the images by mistake, not knowing a year passed by before she came to the realization when she came in asking for some technical help from the IT staff at the restaurant but she had lost her email account along with her phone and replaced it with a new one by then, confused and very tech limited her self, my mother called me up from Sudan asking me to try to help, and so I call called google

After a week 5 calls, 6 different representatives and lots of explanations, found no help, I begged and I pleaded with the representatives to understand that this woman can be facing persecution and all I found was an easy simple answer. "the country is not eligible ", even after i explained the depth of the situation the representative
this was the email they sent me after a week of empty promises

((((

Thank you for your question about verifying your business “*** ***** ********”.

Your listing could not be verified to appear on Google Search and Maps because Google My Business currently does not support businesses inyour country, which doesn’t comply with our eligibility guidelines.

Enforcing these guidelines helps maintain high quality information on Google and improves how customers interact with businesses online.

Thanks for your your cooperation and understanding. If you have any other questions, feel free to contact us.

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

))))))))

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Keep posting to different forums, maybe someone with influence will decide to help you. Good luck.

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Thank you, I will do you have any forums in mind

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Taking this to twitter might not be a bad idea.

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DO NOT TAKE THIS TO TWITTER OR OTHER FORUMS!!! THAT IS THE WORST POSSIBLE ADVICE!!!

If this lady’s life really could be endangered, then the last thing you want to do is draw attention to it. The more attention the issue gets, the more of a risk you put on the lady.

Secondly, let’s get the story straight first.

You say that a woman has posted private pictures online. What does this have to do with your business?

Did she take the photos at your restaurant? Did she post them to a website you own? I am not sure why you are even involved. Are you her dad or something?

Furthermore if you want photos taken down, all you have to do is get this woman to write and email to google and request that the images be removed.

You are probably doing this all wrong which is why google isn’t helping you.

You need to give us more details so that we can better guide you.

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I don’t see how anyone can help without first recovering the google account in question.

Apparently, the image is harmless by US standards. Imagine some random person claims that a photo you put on the Internet is theirs and demands Google to delete it. How should they react?

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as for the protested photos they are of her and her family and loved ones, she added them to the little pin on google maps that shows my location
as for the email she lost it

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I didn’t even claim the image is mine, I only stated, the image belongs to a woman and it doesn’t belong to my restaurant, as it can clearly be seen as separate from my restaurant photos

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Was the account linked with a phone number ? For the last few years google demands a phone number to link with your email account.

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State Department and you congressman, your congressman should have a local office where you can go in person.
If you have local friends, not online but real people in your neighborhood, you can ask them to call or write your congressman also.

If google has to appear before any hearings find the congressman on the committee and write them.
I would avoid social media. Some governments search the net looking for any people saying stuff they don’t like, that could be bad.
I would consider asking the State Dept if any lawyers specialize in this area and if they could give you a name close by if you have the means to do so.
Been to Ad Damman and Al Jubal, I get the whole photo issue.

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I’m not sure it really this, call centres aren’t set up to even know what to do with your type of request. You’re phoning up a US (i presume) call centre asking about another country, it’s almost certainly not going to be in their book of what to do next.

It also sounds like your trying to verify a non US business with a US account? That might be part of the problem.

Was the lost email account and Google one? of so it is sometimes easy to recover.

Also, whatever Google service she uploaded the picture to, you might be able to make a copyright claim on it or something similar one have it removed.

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Put yourself in their shoes. It is not easy if they don’t have access to their Google account.

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You HAVE to write down your whole story in detail and post it here. And when I say detail, I mean you need to explain every single thing.

You can’t just give us bits and pieces of the story and hope that we can help you.

I meet people who work at google all the time. I could walk your story right into their office and get some proper help. But I need to know the full story.

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on the 1st of April,
Google has finally removed the photos, and the young woman is ecstatic. it only took 2 weeks.
I am glad none the less, she is safe now.
Google should fix their customer help system!

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That’s good to hear!

While they do have improvements to make, your case isn’t the most simple thing. You were essentially asking them to do something with something you didn’t own, on a business you didn’t own, in a country your not in. That’s not simple.

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actually the business I own it, the picture was uploaded by mistake to their “Google” system from a country that shouldn’t be supported by their system if it isn’t eligible in the first place.
my point is if they allowed a random listing that can’t be owned on their “google maps”, they should be understanding, and when someone calls with an issue, that issue should be addressed by an individual capable of understanding a situation and responding to it in an etiquette manner, not in complete bureaucracy… The pictures where on Google’s system, anyone with half a brain and one working eye could see there was no correlation between the pictures involving the restaurant and the pictures that are clearly personal and belonged to a random woman, pictures showing her in her bedroom, or her family eating at home…
I know Google is a big company with a lot of problems, but the way the address this issue was not etiquette because the reason they chose to give me was basically this " we know the pictures are in our system but we are going to do nothing because the country was sanctioned and that meane there is a person who will get hurt because of that it’s not our problem, because we don’t work there "
but the sanctions have been there since before, why even include that part of the world if you’re not willing to help?
it is googles system, how can you not correct a mistake in your own system?

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Because Google US is not Google rest of the world. The unfortunate problem with large companies that span multiple countries is they end up working like separate companies. Calling Google US about an issue not related to the US can easily end with a brick wall, because support may only know how to deal with US issues. Then you have to take into consideration that your asking them to do something potentially above their pay grade, that its your business is helpful, but they have to abide by the sanctions as well, and the data your asking them to remove isnt yours, and your tie to the business isn’t immediately clear. It’s not a simple ask, it’s good that it got sorted though.

Did you have to do anything else or did it eventually get sorted through just the customer support channels?

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I agree with you on all you talking points, however, that’s exactly where the problem lies… corrupt bureaucracy

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tbh I am pleasantly surprised this issue got resolved at all and even more amazed that it got resolved as quickly as it did.

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Me too.

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