Brave Brave: Challenging the Google
April 9, 2020
Taking on a big tech company like Google is like tilting windmills. It is near impossible to win a case against big conglomerates worth billions of dollars, but the possibility exists. That is why the “Brave Browsers Creators Call Google Out for GDRP Violation” says Forklog. Google maintains its power and profit, because it collects user data and sells it to third parties. Google is supposed to alert users how it uses their data, but that does not appear to happen.
Brave is a private block-chain browser and its creators filed a complaint with the UK Competition and Markets Authority CMA against Google for infringing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) purpose limitation. This violation gives Google a monopoly. Brave specifically filed the complaints with the Irish Data Protection Commission. Brave reports that the Irish regulator has monitored how Google handles user data and they have also informed other European regulators.
Dr. Johnny Ryan, Brave’s Chief Policy and Industry Relations Officer, explained Google allows user data to freely flow between its subsidiaries:
“Having everyone’s personal data does not mean Google is allowed to use that data across its entire business, for whatever purposes it wants. Rather, it has to seek a legal basis for each specific purpose, and be transparent about them,’ Dr Ryan argued, ‘But Brave’s new evidence reveals that Google reuses our personal data between its businesses and products in bewildering ways that infringe the purpose limitation principle. Google’s internal data free-for-all infringes the GDPR.’”
Google apparently has a monopoly because it leverages data from one of their markets and funnels it into others. The complaint from Brave points out that Google uses vague language to communicate with users how their data is used.
Other than violating users’ privacy, Google’s misuse of data could do more harm, such as price gauging, political misinformation, and other discrimination. Brave has offered to assist the CMA in further investigation. Brave has good reason to complain against Google, because monopolies are illegal in most western countries. The problems will their argument get much attention?
Whitney Grace, April 9, 2020
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