Google Criticised for Data Handling Practices by German Antitrust Watchdog

Germany’s antitrust regulator on Wednesday criticised the best way Google handles customers’ information and threatened motion towards the US tech large.

Data collected by Google was used to “create very detailed user profiles which the company can exploit for advertising and other purposes”, the Federal Cartel Authority mentioned.

Based on a preliminary evaluation, the watchdog decided that customers weren’t given adequate readability on the “far-reaching processing of their data across services” by the tech firm.

“General and indiscriminate data retention… is not permissible” with out giving customers alternative, the watchdog mentioned.

The Federal Cartel Authority was subsequently “currently planning to oblige the company to change the choices offered”, it mentioned, including that it anticipated to difficulty its closing determination this yr.

“Google’s business model relies heavily on the processing of user data,” mentioned the authority’s chief Andreas Mundt.

The digital large had “access to relevant data gathered from a large number of different services” which meant it loved “a strategic advantage over other companies”, Mundt mentioned in a press release.

The warning comes after Google was categorized as an organization of “paramount significance across markets” in 2021.

The designation offers Germany’s regulators the choice to intervene earlier towards probably uncompetitive practices by big digital firms.

Wielding the brand new laws, the watchdog has additionally opened probes into US tech giants corresponding to Amazon and Facebook.

At the tip of final yr, the regulator shelved a separate investigation into Google’s News Showcase service, after the agency made “important adjustments” to ease competitors issues.

Big tech firms have been going through rising scrutiny across the globe over their dominant positions in addition to their tax practices.

In July 2022, the European Parliament adopted the Digital Markets Act to curb the market dominance of Big Tech, with violators going through fines of as much as 10 p.c of their annual world gross sales.