Germany has banned calendar birthdays on Google Calendar, making it impossible to see the birthdays of contacts on the app.
A user of the app highlighted the ban on 16 November, when he noticed he stopped seeing his Google contact birthdays in the calendar only to find out the feature was deactivated for German users.
According to the company, the ban was as a result of a regulatory requirement from the German government.
Privacy concern?
Google hasn’t given any clear reasons for stopping birthday updates for Germany, but only stated that it was due to regulatory concerns.
However, some users on Reddit are suggesting that this may be due to privacy concerns which Germany takes very seriously. They wrote:
“It’s not the birthday itself, it’s the information regarding it. Germany takes privacy very seriously and a lot of people don’t want their birthdays automatically recorded just because they’re added to somebody else’s contact list.”
For those who wish to continue seeing birthday updates, Google suggests manual creation of birthdays as normal events, since the automatic updates no longer work.
They may also export their contacts list and manually manipulate the file so that the birthday details can be imported into Google Calendar.
Another option which is more technical is to use a script written by a Google Calendar product expert to export their contacts list, and automatically manipulate the file so that the details can be imported into Google Calendar.
Stifling innovation
Europe is known for its stringent rules when it comes to technology innovation. Tech giants like Meta have been in trouble with the European Union several times, sometimes through payment of heavy fines.
Germany is one of the countries in the continent with the most rigid rules and while it is understandable to protect the privacy of citizens, this can be done to the extreme, thus hindering innovation.
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