Google warns EU's plans to weaken its monopoly could expose user data
The EU wants Google to share search data with competitors and open up AI on Android, but Google alleges major privacy risks.
Europe's push to rein in Big Tech is ramping up, with the European Commission planning to announce new regulations for Google next month. The rules could see Google forced to play nicer with its EU competitors, but the company has some concerns. Google is framing this not as a manifestation of its anticompetitive bent, but as genuine concern for user privacy.
Heather Adkins, Google’s VP of security engineering, told Wired that the EU's proposals could lead to serious security and privacy issues. The potential changes come in two forms. First, regulators want Gemini dethroned as the sole integrated AI service on Android. This would mean letting users integrate other AI models and give them Gemini-like system access. Separately, the EU wants Google to share anonymized search data with other companies.
"If implemented as described today, I think within a short period of time on Android, we’d see a significant increase in fraud in the EU," said Adkins, who noted these events could happen within weeks of pushing through the changes.
