Google's new privacy policy rolls out today, and if you haven't already wiped your search history, then it's too late. The new policy means the search giant can use data it's collected from your web history across its other services, including YouTube, Gmail and Blogger.
Google is going ahead with the changes despite warnings from data regulators in France that it could be breaching European law.
The search giant claims the new policy means it can tailor search results and target us with more relevant adverts, as well as make other use of the information.
Google has been letting people using its services know about the changes since January. With all those annoying pop-ups, you can't accuse it of keeping quiet about it. Though, of course, it's promoted the change as a simplification of its privacy rules, saying it's consolidating 60 polices into one.
In a blog post, Alma Whitten, Google's director of privacy, product and engineering, wrote: "It's the same Google experience that you're used to, with the same controls."
You can't opt out of the changes if you want to carry on using Google's services. So if you search for things like this on YouTube, expect to see some pretty strange adverts popping up in your Gmail.
France's data protection watchdog, the CNIL, wrote to Google saying that it would lead a Europe-wide investigation of the policy. It stated it had "strong doubts about the lawfulness and fairness" of the policy, as well as its "compliance with European data protection legislation". The regulator is expected to send Google questions on the changes by the middle of the month.
Google has rejected two requests from European regulators to delay the changes.
What do you think of the new policy? Is it just making things easier for us, or is Google becoming too powerful? Let me know in the comments below, or on our Facebook page.
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Comments 5
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anonymous 1 March, 2012 12:26
Personally, I think this change is a good thing and a perfectly sensible one for Google to make. I'm not sure why some people suddenly think their data residing on Google's servers is any less safe. It's the same company with the same ethos. The only real change here is allowing search and advertising results to become more relevant as you move through the various Google services.
Where's the problem in that? I'd rather Google show me adverts for beef jerky (or whatever!) in Gmail instead of adverts for something I haven't actually ever searched for. One way or another, someone is going to display an advert. Wouldn't you rather it was at least vaguely relevant?
And if you can't stomach ads at all...you are free to download an extension into your browser to block them! ;-)
pyub 1 March, 2012 13:10
I cant help but agree with @anon12:26, Amazon have been doing things like this for years, how do you think the e-mails they send you are full of things you like instead of just random rubbish.
anonymous 1 March, 2012 14:14
Well if this is the case and i keep getting emails promoting things i searched for over the web i will be moving to another email site such as yahoo or hotmail.
anonymous 1 March, 2012 15:03
I encourage anyone to read the book 1984. Everything I have is google, as the Android is superior to the iPhone, and my free pop3 pushed email addresses are great too- I noticed the beta testing for this months ago, when, my android had the same search results as my PC...
anonymous 4 March, 2012 10:41
I don't know why everyone's making a big deal out of this. Targeted Advertising cookies have been used for years, this is essentially the same except they're kept on Google's side. If you're afraid of people seeing what you've searched for the answer is simple, sign out of your account while you're not using it. I think it's a good thing.... No more ads for things that are completely irrelevant.