The European Commission’s antitrust investigation of Google is a test of the continent’s ability to reverse the invisible conquest of its sovereignty. Much of the fault lies with the commission’s own unimaginative technology policy, for which an episode of Google-bashing is no substitute.

The “extended search” features that are at the centre of the commission’s complaint save us a few clicks and cut out a few middlemen. Search for “weather”, and Google will now show the forecast itself instead of sending us off to another site. Google says it is being helpful. Who could disagree?

But the search engine is going further. To truly anticipate our needs, the company wants to know our habits, schedules, social circles. So it is planting sensors wherever they might pick up the faintest trace of our aura. First they popped up in our inboxes, which Google continuously scans in order to sell advertising. Next it was our smartphones, glasses and thermostats. Soon it will be our cars. The ultimate step would be to abolish the search box altogether, and try to satisfy our information needs before we have even expressed them. Google’s Eric Schmidt once described this approach as a “serendipity engine”, arguing that this is the future of search.