Google Promises To Switch Up How it Collects User Data in Germany

Alphabet’s Google has agreed to change how it treats user data as part of a deal to end an antitrust investigation in Germany, according to the country’s Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office). The tech company will give users more choice over how platforms use their information as German authorities look to curb Google’s massive influence over how people spend time online.

The compromise centers on Google’s standard practice of combining personal data collected in one Google service to another, and also data collected by third-party services.

“In the future Google will have to provide its users with the possibility to give free, specific, informed and unambiguous consent to the processing of their data across services. For this purpose Google has to offer corresponding choice options for the combination of data,” the FCO wrote in a statement.

Google’s data sharing practices have been under scrutiny in Germany for years. In December 2021, it designated the company to be of “paramount significance for competition across markets.”

The compromise comes after the FCO issued a statement in January objecting to how Google processes data, warning that the platform wasn’t giving users sufficient choice over how their data was being used. German authorities said they worked closely with the European Union’s executive arm, which also designated Alphabet as a technology “gatekeeper” in September under the Digital Markets Act.

According to the European Commission, the tag applies to companies that provide an important gateway between businesses and consumers online. In Google’s case, it applies to its Android OS, Google Maps, Google Search, YouTube and its massive advertising and search business. To avoid sanctions, Google must give European users more choices and share a detailed report on what changes it has introduced to that effect by March 2024.