US: Mississippi AG preps antitrust suit against Google

The Mississippi Attorney General (AG) revealed that his office is preparing an antitrust case against Google, accusing the tech giant of controlling a “pipeline” of data.

“We attorneys general have authority under consumer protection acts to do both,” said Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, according to CNBC, on Monday (March 18). “So it’ll be a multifaceted suit or, hopefully, we can get a settlement if we can get some agreement with them.”

Hood said he wants all the major tech companies to adopt practices similar to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). While he would rather the companies present their own proposals on how they plan to implement those regulations, his office is preparing the lawsuit that could lead to a settlement.

“At some point in the future, there will be a reckoning. It’ll either be in Congress or in a court of law,” he said. “If we don’t have successful legislation, [the] court is going to rule to the effect that a person’s private information is the equivalent of their intellectual property, and that companies have to pay people for it.”

In a statement to CNBC, Google said, “Privacy and security are built into all of our products, and we will continue to engage constructively with state attorneys general on policy issues.”

Hood isn’t the only AG going after big tech companies. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich recently compared the firm to a monopoly, and pointed to the “inaction or inability” of the nation’s lawmakers to stop it.

“They control the pipeline and have the duty to protect that information, as well as these other smaller companies,” Brnovich said in an interview with CNBC. “I [want to] see us do some things like, you know, if you download an app, for example, you have to opt in to allow them to mine your data.”