Google users ‘set to lose EU protections on their data’ due to Brexit

Google plans to move accounts of its British users to a US jurisdiction; making it easier for sensitive information of tens of millions of people to be accessed by UK authorities, reports say.

Speaking to three people familiar with the technology giant’s plan; the Reuters news agency said the British accounts would be removed from their current holding under the control of EU privacy regulators; since the UK is no longer a member of the bloc.

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The European Union is known for having some of the world’s strictest data protection laws with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); whereas the US has some of the weakest for a major economy.

The US has also recently introduced the Cloud Act; which could eventually make it easier for UK authorities to access data of British users for criminal investigations.

Google, which has one of the world’s largest stores of personal information; has so far declined to comment; but it is understood the company intends to make users acknowledge the terms of the changes.

Lea Kissner, who formerly led global privacy technology at Google; said she would be surprised if the UK was kept under EU jurisdiction – which is in Ireland – after Brexit.

A US-UK trade deal that is yet to be negotiated could also come into play, she likewise added.

She said: “There’s a bunch of noise about the UK government possibly trading away enough data protection to lose adequacy under GDPR, at which point having them in Google Ireland’s scope sounds super-messy.”

“Never discount the desire of tech companies not be caught in between two different governments.”

Facebook, which also has its EU headquarters in Ireland, did not respond to a request for comment.