By William Wu (Centre for Innovation Law and Policy)
Google has announced its new privacy policy, which will take effect on March 1. Google is doing away with the over 60 different existing privacy policies for its various products and replacing them with one single shorter and simpler privacy policy.
Those who are most affected by this change are people with Google accounts. Under the new privacy policy, if a user is signed in to the Google account, Google will be able to collect and combine user information from across its various products and services. For example, Google will be able to collect and analyze your search terms on the Google search engine and suggest related videos when you next go onto YouTube. This will enable Google to form fuller and more comprehensive user profiles. As Google emphasized in its announcement, this change will allow it “to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.”
Facebook is already able to combine its user data. Facebook tracks everything its users do while on their accounts and that user data is used to target advertising for particular services and products to particular users. Given the volume of registered users and the often more personal nature of the information its users provide on the social networking site, Facebook has grown to be a formidable competitor to Google in the online advertising market.
This change to Google’s privacy policy is clearly a response to Facebook. The range of services and products Google provides is wider than that of Facebook. Though user data Facebook gathers tends to be more personal, Google has attempted to rectify this with the launch of its own social networking site Google+ last year. Now Google’s new ability to combine user data collected from different services will enable it to better integrate its user data and use it to better target its advertising.
Google’s new change to its privacy policy has raised concerns from some users as well as a number of members of the US Congress. Users cannot opt out of the new privacy policy to prevent their user information from being combined across Google services. Google’s answer is rather unsatisfactory, i.e. don’t log in. information about users activities on Google services while not logged into their Google accounts would not be combined. However, without logging in, many of Google’s services would be inaccessible to users.
There have been growing privacy concerns about the user data Google and Facebook collect, which have attracted the attention of both US lawmakers and the Federal Trade Commission. Google and Facebook both have had to settle with the FTC over investigations of privacy complaints in the past. Google’s privacy policy change is likely to attract further regulatory scrutiny.
– Reprinted with permission.
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