Summary
- Google will allow EU residents to unlink individual services, giving them more control over their data across Google domains.
- Unlinking services may result in certain features not working, such as personalized search results and YouTube recommendations.
- The Digital Markets Act aims to provide a fairer digital marketplace in the EU and may have implications for other regions as well.
Like the other big tech companies, Google is preparing to comply with the EU’s widest-reaching regulation aimed at a fairer digital market yet, the Digital Markets Act (DMA). It will come into full effect in March 2024, and ahead of this deadline, Google has shared in a support document how it plans to comply with the new rules. The company will allow EU residents to unlink individual services from each other, preventing Google from using all your data across all of its domains.
According to the support document in question, Google will give EU residents the choice whether or not they want to keep a selection of Google services linked. They will be able to choose to link all of them, link none of them, or make individual case-by-case decisions. The change will take effect on March 6, 2024, but based on the wording, EU residents may be offered to make a choice before then. The services that can be unlinked from others are listed below:
- Search
- YouTube
- Ad services
- Google Play
- Chrome
- Google Shopping
- Google Maps
Other Google services that aren’t listed will still stay linked.
Google explains that when you choose not to link the services, a few features will no longer work. The company offers Search, YouTube, and Chrome as examples, which will offer less personalized Search results, YouTube recommendations, and Discover feed articles. Another example revolves around Search and Maps. When they aren’t linked, reservations made via Google will not show up in Maps.
While it’s likely that EU residents will receive a prompt to make a choice in the beginning, they can always access linking settings in their Google Account settings under Data & privacy → Linked Google Services → Manage linked services.
Google also makes clear that even if you choose to unlink services, it may still share data across services in some cases. The company points to fraud prevention, spam and abuse protection, and “to comply with the law,” without going into further details on the latter point.
The DMA has the potential to upend the digital landscape worldwide
The DMA aims to provide a fairer digital marketplace in the EU. To achieve that, it’s tailored to rein in the biggest tech companies that meet certain thresholds, including Google, Amazon, Apple, and Meta. By adding restrictions for these gatekeepers, it’s supposed to provide a level playing field for smaller companies all while offering better consumer protection.
For example, one of the biggest changes that Meta will have to agree to is opening up its messaging apps to competing services, theoretically allowing Telegram or Signal users to write with people on WhatsApp without downloading the Meta app. Meanwhile, Apple is forced to open its mobile platform for third-party app stores. If companies don’t comply, the EU can fine them with up to 10% of their annual worldwide turnover or up to 20% in repeat cases.
The DMA will likely have implications for other regions, too, given that the affected companies are worldwide actors that may not want to offer different feature sets across different regions. If the DMA is successful, it may also inspire other legislators to pass similar rulings.
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