Google will reportedly shift British users' accounts from under the protection of EU regulations to more lenient US guidelines, in the aftermath of Brexit.

That will effectively mean that the EU's highly protective GDPR rules will no longer apply to UK-based Google accounts. Instead, US jurisdiction will allow for much more leeway over user data, including easier access for law enforcement to "sensitive personal information".

Some might see this as a good thing, enabling the UK police to access search requests made by suspected criminals and terrorists, but it also means that your own search history and much much more could be open to scrutiny without your permission.

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Every UK user will be informed of the changes soon, claims Reuters, with new terms of service likely to need authorisation on each and every UK Google account.

At present, all UK accounts lie under the jurisdiction of Ireland, where Google's European headquarters are based. But with Britain's withdrawal from the EU, three sources told Reuters that it no longer makes sense to do so, as the UK is yet to reveal its own data protection plans to replace GDPR.

As the news site states: "The United States has among the weakest privacy protections of any major economy, with no broad law despite years of advocacy by consumer protection groups."

It also revealed that Google opted not to shift control over British accounts to a British subsidiary.