Earlier this month, when U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta issued penalties against Google for monopolizing the search engine market, he stopped short of the harshest ones — like forcing the breakup of the company.

Instead, Mehta ordered Google to share portions of its incredibly valuable search index and user click-and-query data with some of its competitors. This move, which will make it easier for rivals to build their own search engines, is meant to even the playing field in the search space and chip away at Google's monopoly power.

But it raises a new concern: How to keep Google user data private once it is handed over to third parties. Tech and data privacy analysts are warning that sharing this data could put private information at risk in ways users never agreed to.

Google

See Full Page