(Image Source: Google)
BY EVAN THOMAS
ANCHOR MEGAN MURPHY
Mark your Google Calendars. On March 1st, all Google products and services will be covered under a single privacy policy.
“Instead of over 60 policies for different Google products and features, we’re introducing just one, with fewer words, simpler explanations and less legal gloop to wade through.”
Under the new policy, Google will consolidate information on all its services into one set of data for each user. It claims this will make using Google simpler and more intuitive.
And, as TechCrunch points out, it will let Google laser-target its advertisement and search results to individual users, no matter what they do on Google.
“Think of any random thing you or anyone you’re somehow connected to has done on any Google service ever. Now, assume any of that data could play a part in tailoring search results and ads or anything else to you.”
Registered Google users can’t opt out of the new policy unless they stop using all Google products. Gizmodo says it’s too much control from the company that once pledged to the philosophy, “Don’t be Evil.”
“Google has built a very lucrative company on the reputation of user respect. It has made billions of dollars in that effort to get us all under its feel-good tent. And now it's pulling the stakes out, collapsing it.”
So is there a benefit to this? ZDNet thinks so. Unsettling privacy implications aside, this will make navigating Google’s legal limitations a little easier.
“Anything that simplifies privacy policies makes sense—even if you may not agree with them.”
It’s a shift to a full, plain-language spell-out that, according to GigaOM, Google is required by law to make.
“Google and Facebook, of course, are in a slightly different situation than are most other web companies. Both companies have settled with the FTC around charges of privacy violations... So expect to this trend of privacy transparency — even as the sites continue to overhaul their platforms — to continue for at least the next 20 years.”
Google is urging its users to review its new privacy policy and terms of service which, thanks to that FTC settlement, are a pretty easy read.
