This is, I think, being done for antitrust reasons, but maybe it is actually a good thing. I don't know that we are better off pretending Google searches are private.
The proposal does not merely open access to abstract statistics or aggregate market data. It requires Google to offer an API-based, reliable and stable daily feed of essentially all search records from people in Europe, including what they search for, what results they see, what they click, how they refine their searches, and where those searches roughly originate.
The draft requires sharing of the user’s entire search query, timestamp, coarse but useful location data, query language, device identifier, timing and order of clicks, hover, scroll, swipe, expansion events, the full sequence of query, view, click, and ranking data associated with a user over time, and much more. In this post I focus on the query string and the mechanics of its delivery.
You make a great point about pretending searches are private. Maybe this forced transparency will finally make people realize exactly how much data they’re giving away every day
You’ve got a point about the illusion of privacy. If our data is being harvested anyway, maybe transparency about who has it is the first step toward real regulation.