Google Calendar birthday blues for German users: what’s going on?

Update (Sept 30): Following statement was posted today by the same product expert we cited in our original coverage below:

The information we’ve received from Google is that the ability to see birthdays from contacts is being removed from German calendars. It appears that the ability to see these birthdays was still possible on a mobile for some people but that option is now being removed as well. I don’t know how long you’ll be able to see the previous birthdays. All the birthday details will still be available through Google Contacts though.

Original story follows:

If you’ve been relying on Google Calendar to remind you of birthdays, especially in Germany, you might have noticed something odd recently. German users are experiencing a major glitch — Google Calendar just isn’t showing birthdays anymore. Imagine missing your brother’s birthday because your calendar app failed you. That’s the reality some are facing, and it’s all tied to some major changes Google has been forced to make thanks to Germany’s antitrust watchdog, the Federal Cartel Office (FCO).

In late 2023, Google agreed to tweak its data-handling practices after pressure from German authorities. These changes were a result of objections raised by the FCO, which wasn’t happy about how Google was freely mingling user data across its services. The issue? Google had been able to share your personal info, like birthdays, across platforms such as Gmail, Google Contacts, and Calendar without asking you. This cross-platform data sharing gave Google an upper hand over competitors and left users in the dark about how their data was being handled.

To put a stop to this, the FCO pushed for reforms that allow users to have more control over how their data is processed. As a result, Google can no longer seamlessly connect information across its services without your explicit consent.

This new rule sounds like a win for privacy, right? But it’s also created a mess for German users. Suddenly, birthdays aren’t appearing in Google Calendar — even though they’re clearly marked in Google Contacts. So, what gives?

It turns out Google may have pulled back on how it cross-shares this personal information as part of its compliance with the new regulations. While this sounds like a reasonable explanation, it is frustrating for German users. It gets even more frustrating for those who can still see birthdays in the Calendar app on Android, but not on the web version. Sounds a bit glitchy, right?

There’s no official word from Google about whether this birthday disappearing act is a bug or just a quirk of the new data rules. The closest we’ve come is a product expert’s feedback after escalating the matter for further investigation, which aligns with the new data rules in Germany.

Some users have reported that it works fine on one account but not on another, even within the same household. And one possible explanation for this variation is that Google hasn’t yet streamlined the changes across all versions of its Calendar app. But hey, it could just be an unintended hiccup in their compliance journey. Either way, frustrated users are looking for a fix, and one clever individual may have found it.

Apparently, the problem could be tied to business features in Google accounts. If you’re not using these fancy business perks, turning off “Business personalization” might be the magic trick. Here’s how you do it:

1. Go to your Google account at accounts.google.com
2. Go to “People and sharing”
3. Scroll down to “Business features”
4. Turn off “Business personalization”
5. Go to “Data and privacy”
6. Go to “Manage linked services” under “Linked Google services”
7. Tick “Contacts”

Is it a perfect fix? Not really. But it’s a quick band-aid until Google irons out the kinks (if they ever do).

On the brighter side, Google has started rolling out a new feature that lets users manually add birthdays to their Google Calendar app on Android. So, if the privacy tweaks have made automatic syncing impossible for you, you can still keep track of your friends’ birthdays the old-fashioned way — by manually entering them yourself.

While this might seem like a step backward, it’s Google’s way of staying on the right side of the law while keeping you in the loop. And hey, it ensures you won’t miss those all-important birthday reminders.