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With a possible blocking of Google mail services in our country, users may lose access to all services related to the IT giant. Trends explain what to do with apps, subscriptions and appliances
In July 2021, a law “on landing” IT giants was adopted in our country. It obliges foreign Internet companies with a daily audience of more than 500 thousand users to open representative offices in our country, register on the Roskomnadzor website and place a feedback form there for users from our country. The department gets the opportunity to restrict users’ access to information that violates Russian law.
Penalties for non-compliance:
- exclusion from search results;
- a ban on the sale and placement of advertising in the Russian Federation;
- restriction of acceptance of payments;
- partial or complete blockage.
On January 1, 2022, the law came into force. Apple, Spotify, TikTok, Viber, Meta Platforms (the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) have already begun to enforce the “landing” law. On February 25, Google began landing. However, the risk of restricting access, even if the requirements of Roskomnadzor are met, remains.
What happens if access to Google is restricted
Google is more than just a search engine. The company’s infrastructure covers many services and sites on the Internet. Servers, IP addresses, and cloud storage are tied to Google’s work. When blocked, many sites can stop working.
Loss of access to services
By blocking Google services, users can not only lose access to the IT giant’s ecosystem (Google Pay, Google Docs, Google Drive), but also lose their accounts in services and applications linked to Gmail, from Instagram to Spotify. If this happens, it will be impossible to change the account information or password.
Also, if access is restricted, the user may suddenly lose access to finances if he has electronic wallets linked to Google services.
Shopping in online stores, subscriptions to services – access to this will be problematic.
Anton Ivakhnenko, Technical Director of RU-CENTER Group:
“It is extremely difficult to predict something now, but still, a complete blocking of all Google services seems to be an unrealistic step. I believe that such assumptions arise because of the issue with mobile payment services, but this is a highly specialized issue related specifically to Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Smartphones will turn into a “brick”
From the work of Google depends, among other things, the work of technology and smartphones. In our country, according to statistics for the first quarter of 2021, Samsung takes the first place in terms of the number of smartphones sold – 33%. In second place is Xiaomi (22%), in third place is Apple (16%), in fourth and fifth places are Honor and Huawei (9% and 3% respectively).
If Google is blocked in our country, 67% of smartphones may stop working, since the Android operating system is closely related to the correct operation of Google.
In the worst case, if the tech giant is blocked, smartphones will not be able to function normally, payment by bank cards, mail, applications, online banking will stop working.
With access restriction, users will not be able to download new applications, since this requires Google Play. The Google Pay contactless payment service will also stop working, as it requires synchronization through Google to work. Payment by phone in stores, metro and the Internet will become unavailable.
However, experts believe that the complete shutdown of smartphones is an unlikely scenario.
Anton Ivakhnenko, Technical Director of RU-CENTER Group:
“The threat of turning the phone into a “brick”, that is, a complete shutdown of its performance, today looks like a rather unlikely scenario. In this case, it is theoretically possible, for example, to disable Google Play. In this case, users, unfortunately, will lose the ability to update the system and programs, but the smartphone itself and the applications installed on it will probably continue to function.”
Finally, YouTube depends on Google. In the event of a blockage or “slowdown”, video hosting will stop working, depriving users of the opportunity to consume entertainment and informational content.
The Internet audience in our country is 124 million people, YouTube is watched by 64% of this audience, about 80 million people.
However, YouTube can be blocked separately from Google. For example, in response to the blocking of channels of Russian state publications abroad.
Anton Ivakhnenko, Technical Director of RU-CENTER Group:
“There may be some restrictions on the operation of a number of information services in accordance with the requirements of Roskomnadzor (be it YouTube or search results), but they are unlikely to affect, for example, the operation of the mail server.”
What to do in case of Google blocking
So far, Google has only been threatened with blocking in our country and imposed multibillion-dollar fines for refusing to remove information recognized as prohibited in the Russian Federation. Despite the words of experts that a complete blockage is unlikely, it is quite possible that services will “slow down”, which will also interfere with work. For example, Twitter slowed down. Therefore, you can think about saving your data and accounts right now.
Download all data
One way to save your data is to upload files from Google’s servers to your computer.
Anton Novikov, product manager of hosting provider and domain registrar REG.RU:
“For safety, you can take care of archiving content in advance in Google services — Mail, Drive, and others. There is a special Google Takeout tool in the system setup: it exports documents and mail to a computer.”
Google Takeout allows you to download files from Google Drive, Docs, Gmail, other services, as well as videos from YouTube. A total of 51 data types are available. After downloading the files, you can either continue to store them on your computer (Google Takeout works on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS devices) or upload them to cloud storage such as Dropbox.
If you restrict access to Google, access to all data created in the service ecosystem will remain.
Another way is to transfer all the data to the servers.
Anton Ivakhnenko, Technical Director of RU-CENTER Group:
“In any case, it will not be superfluous to make a backup copy and upload an archive with your data, correspondence and other valuable information hosted on cloud resources outside Russian jurisdiction. In addition, it is useful to work out a plan for moving from foreign cloud services, if any, to analogues or your own internal installations. This can be done regardless of the issue of blocking.
Change account
If you use a third-party service by logging in with your Google account (such a function is available in Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and many other applications), you can relink your account to other services that comply with Russian law (Yandex, Mail.ru). To see the services that use authorization through your account, you need to go to your Google account settings, then select the “Security” section. The “Third-party apps with account access” section will list all the services and data that have been granted access.
In many services (for example, Instagram, Spotify, Facebook), you can relink your account through your profile settings, you will need to write to support somewhere.
In the event of a Google blocking threat, this way you will retain access to services and applications, and will not lose your subscription.
Create your own server
One of the possible solutions for businesses in case of blocking the Google service is their own mail server. In this case, the company will be able to connect several offices, organize its own file and documentation storage, as well as create its own messenger and telephony inside the server.
Anton Novikov, product manager of hosting provider and domain registrar REG.RU:
“Creating a server is a possible solution, but deploying your own organization or IP mail server will take a lot of time. Moreover, you will need server hardware, a suitable communication channel, technically competent specialists who will set everything up. It is more rational to use the already existing solutions on the market in our country. Such solutions are provided, for example, by Yandex and Mail.ru, as well as RU-CENTER.”
Anton Ivakhnenko, Technical Director of RU-CENTER Group:
“Using your own mail server is a mandatory requirement in many corporations that are sensitive to data privacy and confidentiality regulations. This solution has many advantages, but it also has certain technical difficulties and resources for support, so it is obvious that not all companies need their own mail server and it is impossible to unequivocally answer the question “do I need to create it?”.
Gmail has the ability to automatically forward incoming emails to a different address. You can forward all messages or only some (for example, only those marked as “important”). Unfortunately, in case of blocking, redirection may stop working.
Anton Ivakhnenko, Technical Director of RU-CENTER Group:
“If the mail server is blocked, forwarding will most likely not work in the correct mode. If mail is hosted on your own domain, you can transfer mail to any other service or organize your own mail service, while your addresses will remain unchanged.
If the mail is hosted on public mail services (for example, Gmail), experts recommend transferring all correspondence to another mail (for example, Yandex or Mail.ru) and setting up forwarding. To do this, go to the Gmail settings, then in the “Forwarding” section, add the email address to which you want to forward all incoming messages.
To stay in touch with your contacts, you can enable auto-reply to any incoming message with a new email address. To do this, you also need to go to the Google mail settings, then in the “Autoresponder” section, specify the subject and text of the letter that you want to send for each incoming request.
Use a VPN
One of the easiest ways to use the service, even if access is limited in the state, is to use a VPN.
A VPN is a virtual private network that creates a secure, encrypted user connection to the Web. With the help of a VPN, the user maintains confidentiality and, among other things, can bypass local restrictions. Many people in our country started using VPN in 2018, when Roskomnadzor blocked the Telegram messenger. As a way to bypass the restrictions, the owner of the application, Pavel Durov, recommended using proxy servers and VPN services. In 2020, the blocking of Telegram was removed.
In case of blocking, access to services can be maintained through VPN. However, this is not a very convenient solution, so if access is restricted, you can use a VPN, change all data by linking it to sites that work correctly in the country, and continue to use applications and services without restrictions.
It is important to note that many VPN services in our country are blocked by the law on the prohibition of bypassing blocking.