Google users will have more control over the use of their data in the future. However, the new rules do not apply to all of the US group’s services.
It is a success for the Federal Cartel Office: After an agreement with the German authority, the Google group Alphabet must give its users more options when processing their data. The office announced this today in Bonn. The antitrust authorities had previously sent the US group a “detailed warning,” which has now been resolved with the agreement.
The President of the Federal Cartel Office, Andreas Mundt, explained that in the future, users of Google services will have much better choices about what happens to their data, how Google can use it and whether the data can be used across services. “On the one hand, this protects the users’ right to self-determination with regard to their data. On the other hand, Google’s data-driven market power can be limited.”
25 Google services affected
Google was able to prevail in the negotiations with its position that the services regulated by the Digital Markets Act (DMA) of the European Union are not subject to additional requirements from the Federal Cartel Office. These are Google Shopping, Google Play, Google Maps, Google Search, YouTube, Android, Google Chrome and Google’s online advertising service. Some of these DMA-regulated services were still the subject of warnings from the Federal Cartel Office.
The authority emphasized that Google’s additional commitments to the Federal Cartel Office affect “more than 25 other services”, including GMail, Google News, Assistant, Contacts and Google TV. However, company sources said the number of affected services was probably significantly smaller than 25.
Jurisdiction is controversial
A Google spokesman said it was “pleased to have a constructive exchange with the Federal Cartel Office as we worked to address its concerns.” Google has long been an industry leader in giving people choice, transparency and simple controls to help them manage their data. “The commitments published today follow this approach to further develop our products to meet the expectations of users and authorities.”
It is controversial among experts as to whether the Cartel Office is even responsible for reviewing data collection and data collection methods. The authority already admitted in January that the European DMA must be applied to certain Google services, the enforcement of which falls under the exclusive competence of the EU Commission – these have now been precisely defined.