Google may let you choose which of its services are linked, thanks to EU
Google may let you choose which of its services are linked, thanks to EU
When the Digital Markets Act goes into effect, Google will allow users in the EU to unlink the Google services they use.
Google may be forced by the EU to give you the freedom to choose which services are linked*
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is an EU law that takes effect on March 6, 2024. As a result of the DMA, in the EU, Google offers you the choice to keep certain Google services linked.
Gotta love the weaselly language.
I'm wondering if they try to slither out of actually complying with the law.
- They say they will unlink whatever "Ad Services" is and everything else. IMO they should unlink customer ad profiles from other service accounts, which I don't expect them to do.
- The whole point of the DMA is not just to have Google unlink your Youtube account from your Gmail account, but that they provide the same level of service and integration to outside services as with their own, without prioritizing their own. That means that I should be able to use Google Chrome and Search together to the same degree as Firefox and Search. Execs at Google are on record saying the only point of them developing Chrome is to do stuff that is now against the law in Europe. I wonder if they find a new business model or keep the current, illegal one.
I'm sure they'll do it in a way that's convenient and doesn't require 14 clicks through obnoxiously designed popups every single time you use a Google service. Yep, certainly no way this could go wrong.
They just need to put it in the regular account settings and not a single person on the planet will figure out how to get to them and change them.
Law says that they can't favour their own service over that of their competitors. I guess they'll break it though.
and when they're caught, they'll dispute the claims with regulators, like every company does all the time.
i remember digging a bit into the french data protection office v. discord a while back, when they got hit with sanctions for not respecting gdpr, and they disputed every single claim, sometimes arguing in real bad faith, like them claiming they handle very little private user data, so they don't need to do data protection analysies like the law says.
considering google's sheer empire on data, i imagine they play the same tricks, but like 1000× worse
Man i love EU
Sometimes the EU kicks ass. Other times, it's the opposite. See EU browser root certs.
Well, EU at least isn't compromised like US governments, and still have some sense and its bureaucracy have some senses to prevent Big Tech taking over them, but because of the same bureaucracy and lack of and unwilling to look at opinions from the tech experts, many of their decisions are well, facepalm-worthy such as their upcoming root certs (like you said above) and CRA.
The EU seems like the only major entity actually trying at this point. They deserve a huge thanks in my book.
Cool. When can I have another location or backup provider on my Android phone?
Our EU saviors. Its so disappointing that we need to rely on the EU to force companies to make changes rather than our own governments...
Next update - "Google to shut down Chrome in the EU"
"Google to kill its own browser monopoly and encourage competition instead by leaving a market bigger than the US open"
They would dare, I think, maybe even the reverse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_effect
Next update after that: "Competing browser taking 100% of Chrome's market share"
Couldn't you always unlink Google services by using different accounts for them?
you could, but they definitely pushed you to use a single account everywhere, even logging you in automatically to your google account in chrome if you use it on google search or vice-versa
The EU seems like the only major entity actually trying at this point. I really appreciate that.
The EU seems like the only major entity actually trying at this point.