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Google could be forced to let British users choose whether to use rival search services, the country's antitrust watchdog said Tuesday as it proposed using new digital regulations to boost competition. The Competition and Markets Authority said its priority measures include requiring Google to present users with choice screens when they use key products like the Chrome browser and Android mobile operating system. The choice screens would let users easily select and switch between search services", which could potentially include AI assistants, it said. The watchdog is seeking to give Google a strategic market status label under the new UK digital rules. That would give it the power to use targeted measures to impose changes to specific aspects of its search operations in the UK. The CMA's move could have significant implications for businesses and consumers in the UK, Google said. Oliver Bethell, Google's senior director of competition, noted in a prepared statement that CMA ...
Google has agreed to purge billions of records containing personal information collected from more than 136 million people in the US surfing the internet through its Chrome web browser. The records purge comes as part of a settlement in a lawsuit accusing the search giant of illegal surveillance. The details of the deal emerged in a court filing on Monday, more than three months after Google and the attorneys handling the class-action case disclosed they had resolved a June 2020 lawsuit targeting Chrome's privacy controls. Among other allegations, the lawsuit accused Google of tracking Chrome users' internet activity even when they had switched the browser to the Incognito setting that is supposed to shield them from being shadowed by the Mountain View, California, company. Google vigorously fought the lawsuit until US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected a request to dismiss the case last August, setting up a potential trial. The settlement was negotiated during the nex