Google scientist warns EU search data sharing plans undermine user privacy
Published: 05/05/2026
| Reuters
Distinguished Google scientist Sergei Vassilvitskii has warned EU antitrust regulators that a proposal requiring the company to share search data with rivals like OpenAI risks exposing users' personal information. The warning comes a month after the European Commission published its plans under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) to force Google to provide competitors with access to search rankings, queries, and click data on fair terms. However, Google argues that the proposed anonymisation methods are insufficient to prevent modern AI tools from identifying individuals.
Vassilvitskii revealed that Google's internal red team successfully re-identified users from similar datasets in less than two hours. He described the proposal as regulatory overreach that jeopardises security and privacy. While Google has offered to provide technical expertise to establish stronger guardrails, regulators are set to finalise the specific measures by 27 July.
Training Announcement: Find out more about our range of independent accredited data protection and AI governance qualifications from IAPP and BCS.
What is this page?
You are reading a summary article on the Privacy Newsfeed, a free resource for DPOs and other professionals with privacy or data protection responsibilities helping them stay informed of industry news all in one place. The information here is a brief snippet relating to a single piece of original content or several articles about a common topic or thread. The main contributor is listed in the top left-hand corner, just beneath the article title.
The Privacy Newsfeed monitors over 300 global publications, of which more than 3,250 summary articles have been posted to the online archive dating back to the beginning of 2020. A weekly roundup is available by email every Friday.