Given that the UK is "intending" to follow GDPR and, for now, it is still enshrined in UK law, this initially seems like a bit of a sensationalist scare piece.

Given that the UK is "intending" to follow GDPR and, for now, it is still enshrined in UK law, this initially seems like a bit of a sensationalist scare piece. However, the lede is somewhat buried: “There’s a bunch of noise about the U.K. government possibly trading away enough data protection to lose adequacy under GDPR, at which point having them in Google Ireland’s scope sounds super-messy,” Kissner said. It's possible that, over time, the UK will adjust its laws and lose EU "adequacy". This currently seems unlikely so the game, from Google's point of view, is to work out whether to move out early and cause a sensation or to wait until it happens (if it happens) and then make a rush then. It's complicated because things may change gradually, over a long period of time, and there may be some things that are advantageous earlier or later. Also, Google might not want to put itself in a position where it appears to be trying to influence British law: "if you change that particular thing, we'll move out". If they do it up-front under the guise of Brexit then they put themselves in the best possible position to use the data as they wish (within whatever law applies) and avoid such accusations later. This is complex and involves a lot of game theory.