European consumer group condemns Google’s ‘surveillance capitalism’

Millions of European consumers have been unwittingly “placed on a fast track to surveillance” after signing up to Google services because of how the tech giant sets up its platforms, according to an EU-wide consumer group.

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), which has a presence in 10 EU countries, has accused Google of “unfairly steering consumers towards its surveillance system” when they sign up to its services instead of giving default privacy options.

“It takes one simple step to let Google monitor and exploit everything you do,” said the BEUC deputy director general Ursula Pachl. “If you want to benefit from privacy-friendly settings, you must navigate through a longer process and a mix of unclear and misleading options.”

She said people who create a Google account are, as a result, “subjected to surveillance by design and by default. Instead, privacy protection should be the default and easiest choice for consumers”.

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People can choose to create a Google account voluntarily or be obliged to create one when they use certain Google products and services including apps on android phones.

Sign-up is the critical point at which Google asks users to indicate their “choices” about how their account operates and according to the BEUC, the express personalisation setting means consumers activate “all the account settings that feed Google’s surveillance activities”.

It notes Google does not provide consumers with the option to turn all settings ‘off’ in one click and if consumers want to activate the more privacy-friendly options, this requires “manual personalisation”.

“Google is a repeat offender,” Ms Pachl said. “It is more than three years since we filed complaints against Google’s location-tracking practices and the Irish Data Protection Commissioner in charge has still not issued a decision on the case. Meanwhile Google’s practices have not changed in essence.”

The tech giant still “carries out continuous tracking and profiling of consumers and its practices set the tone for the rest of the market”, she added.

The BEUC said the language Google uses during registration “is unclear, incomplete, and misleading and also frames the more privacy-friendly options as missing out on advantages”.

It described the company as a “colossus in the world of surveillance capitalism [with] 81 per cent of its revenue comes from its advertising operations, which in turn depend on the data it hoovers up on people to personalise adverts for them.”

In response a Google spokeswoman told The Irish Times the company was aware “consumer trust depends on honesty and transparency” and said it had “staked our future success on building ever simpler, more accessible controls and giving people clearer choices. And, just as important, doing more with less data.”

She said the company welcomed the opportunity “to engage on this important topic with Europe’s consumer advocates and regulators”.

Addressing the specific claims made by the BEUC, she said Google aims “to help people make choices on their terms, when someone creates a new Google account, we present different options. These options are clearly labelled and designed to be simple to understand” and it remained “committed to ensuring these choices are clear and simple”.