In an announcement on late Tuesday afternoon, Google announced it’s newest Privacy Policy. It covers all of their products and worst of all, there is no OPT OUT.
In what appears to be a bit of a blow to privacy, the largest of the web giants Google announced plans to follow users activities across all of it’s sites, including YouTube, Gmail and it’s leading search engine.
Google had already been collecting some info, however this marks the first attempt at combining data across all of it’s sites to give a fuller profile of users.
These policies take effect March 1 and users will not be able to opt out of the changes. According to experts this policy shift will certainly gain further attention from federal regulators regarding the company’s privacy and competitive practices.
The Washington Post offers a pretty good breakdown as to what this move means to the average computer user. That is using Google’s services. FAQ: What exactly will Google be able to collect and integrate? How does this affect me.
The new privacy policy makes clear that for people logged into a Google account, Google can use information shared on one service in other Google services.
“If you’re signed in, we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services,” Alma Whitten, Google’s director of privacy for product and engineering, wrote in a company blog post. “In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.”
Update 1.27.2012 – Email went out to all good user’s this morning regarding their privacy policy change. Worth reading if your a Google user of any kind. Full content of this email can be found here…
Sources: NewYorkTimes, WashingtonPost