UK government's deal with Google 'dangerously naive', say campaigners

Google has agreed a sweeping deal with the UK government to provide free technology to the public sector from the NHS to local councils– a move campaigners have called "dangerously naive". The US company will be asked to "upskill" tens of thousands of civil servants in technology, including in using artificial intelligence, as part of an agreement which will not require the government to pay. It is considered in Whitehall to be giving Google "a foot in the door" as the digitisation of public services accelerates. However, the agreement prompted concerns about the precariousness of UK public data being held on US servers amid the unpredictable leadership of Donald Trump. The Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said Google Cloud, which provides databases, machine learning and computing power, had "agreed to work with the UK government in helping public services use advanced tech to shake off decades old'ball and chain' legacy contracts which leave essential services vulnerable to cyber-attack". Google's services are considered more agile and efficient than traditional competitors, but there are concerns in Whitehall's digital circles about the government becoming locked into a new kind of dependency.