Tuesday Google announced they are revising the privacy policy of 60 of their services, to bring them all under one privacy policy umbrella. As an avid Google user, I received an email from Google alerting me to this change this morning. I’m not much of an alarmist on this sort of thing but I use Google for everything. I have a Gmail account, use Google Calendar, Google search, an Android phone, have posted a couple videos on YouTube, use Chrome as my browser and Picasa to store and share photos. Just in case some of you are Google users too, I thought I’d share some of what I discovered.
I found a good article on the subject from the Washington Post. I have the highlights here but check out the full article or read the new Google policy for yourself.
The new policy will unify up to 60 services under one policy, enabling those services to share information about you. The only sites excluded from this are Google Books, Google Wallet, and Google Chrome, due to regulatory and technical issues. Should the regulations permit or the technical issues be resolved I’m sure they will bring these into the fold as well. If you sign in to a Google product other than these three, you must agree to this policy. If you do not want your data shared you must close your Google accounts; all of them. Collecting all this data in one place will help them get a fuller picture of who you are, what you are interested in, and how you spend your time online.
The information they collect is anything from calendar appointments and location data, to contacts, information about your smartphone, and what you search for. Google’s stated purpose for collecting your information is to create a more intuitive experience for you. For example, the ads you view will be based on the data they collect. Additionally, lets say you are driving in traffic and your Android phone knows where you are by GPS. It also knows you have a meeting and the traffic in the area, so it sends you a reminder so you will not be late. Sounds helpful as long as you don’t mind the technology keeping such close tabs on you.
Some people will see the changes as progress enabling them to do more from one resource. Others will view this as an invasion of privacy. It’s up to each individual consumer to decide and opt in or opt out
