Google exec warns DOJ remedies will undermine user trust in internet search

WASHINGTON (CN) — A top Google executive in charge of the company’s search engine testified Tuesday that the Justice Department’s proposals to remedy Google’s search monopoly would “deeply undermine user trust.”

Elizabeth Reid, Google’s head of search, took the stand and kicked off the final week of testimony in the landmark antitrust trial where a federal judge must determine how to address the tech giant’s dominance in internet search.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta — who ruled in 2024 that Google had operated an illegal monopoly by shelling out billions to make its product the default engine on Apple devices and other browsers like Mozilla — has indicated he will determine a remedy in August.

The Justice Department has proposed a major breakup of Google, including the divestiture of its Chrome browser and potentially Android, in addition to the release of Google’s search data and search index to help rival search engines catch up to Google’s ill-gotten quality.

Reid warned that publishing such data, including how Google ranks search results, would risk harming users’ trust that their searches remain private and sharing that data with new search engines would make them a target for hackers.

“Once it’s turned over to a qualified competitor, there’s no further protections we can give,” Reid said. “A startup is generally not a target because it’s small, but now it has this huge treasure trove of data.”

Reid testified that users would likely lose trust in more Google products, and search overall, as a result of the government’s proposals. She noted that many people use Google for questions they may not be willing to ask a friend.

“If suddenly they’re worried that data might go somewhere else, maybe they decide to not use Google altogether, maybe they decide they’re not going to search for certain categories,” Reid said.

Google has urged Mehta to craft a narrow remedy to restore competition to the internet search market, primarily by opening its multibillion-dollar default deals to rival bidding on a yearly basis. In that case, device manufacturers could have different defaults on phones, tablets and computers.

The tech giant has indicated it will appeal Mehta’s ultimate decision in August, setting up a lengthy appeals battle.

Reid echoed Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s testimony from last week, warning that bad actors could “reverse-engineer” Google’s systems thanks to the government’s data-sharing proposals, making it easier to get spam and misinformation in a search result.

She characterized Google’s efforts to fend off the bad actors as “always a cat and mouse game.” With the Justice Department’s remedies, however, “it suddenly becomes a cat and mouse game where your hands are really tied behind your back,” Reid said.

The Justice Department has downplayedthe likelihood that its data-sharing proposals would cause any havoc for search users, noting initially in its pre-trial brief that in 2010, Google began sharing its search-related technology with Yahoo Japan and faced no issue.

In order to better facilitate any imposed remedies, the Justice Department has also recommended the formation of a Compliance Monitor and Technical Committee to ensure Mehta’s decision is properly implemented and ensure some level of data security.

A Technical Committee was established as part of the settlement in the landmark antitrust case U.S. v. Microsoft, also decided in Washington.

Reid also said that the government’s proposals would harm Google’s ability to innovate, as the company would have to divert engineering talent toward compliance work instead. She testified that more than 20% of the search engineering force would need to focus on compliance, “because it’s so extensive and invasive.”

She said Google would instead begin focusing on areas not covered by the remedies, “because that’s where we can stand out,” but did not explain to which areas she was referring.

Throughout the trial, several third-party tech executives have testified both in favor and against the Justice Department’s proposed remedies. Executives for OpenAI, Yahoo and Perplexity testified they’d be interested in purchasing Google Chrome, if Mehta ordered its divestiture.

Meanwhile, Mozilla’s chief financial officer Eric Muhlheim said his company’s Firefox browser would be crushed without the multibillion-dollar deal with Google to make its search engine the default on the browser.

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