Google has started notifying its users in the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland about some changes the company is making to how it provides its services.

These changes will be reflected in updates to Google's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy that you can read now, but that will come into effect on January 22, 2019.

The first change Google is making is that for users based in the EEA and Switzerland, Google Ireland Limited—based in Dublin, where Google has its European headquarters—will become the “service provider” responsible for most of Google's consumer services, from Search to Gmail to Maps and beyond. These changes will be reflected in Google's general Terms of Service, where the “service provider” that offers these services is currently Google LLC, based in the U.S. Google is also making similar changes in the separate terms for Drive, Play, YouTube, and YouTube Paid Service.

The search giant is also making a number of updates to Google’s Privacy Policy. The most important of these is that Google Ireland Limited will become the “data controller” legally responsible for EEA and Swiss users’ information. This means that Google Ireland Limited becomes responsible for responding to requests for its user data, including from EU law enforcement, consistent with Irish law. It is also responsible for compliance with applicable privacy laws, including Europe’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

"We’re making the data controller change to facilitate engagement with EU data protection authorities via the GDPR’s “One Stop Shop” mechanism, which was created to ensure consistency of regulatory decisions for companies and EU citizens, "said Anne Rooney, Public Policy Manager, Google Ireland.

These changes do not in any way alter how Google's products work or how the company collects or process user data within its services. Nothing changes about users's current settings.