Google has rolled out its new privacy policy allowing the firm to trace users across various services to develop targeted advertising, despite sharp criticism from US and European consumer advocacy groups.
Google contends the move simplifies and unifies its policies across its various services equivalent to Gmail, YouTube, Android mobile systems, social networks and internet search.
"The hot policy doesn't change any existing privacy settings or how any personal information is shared outside of Google," Google privacy chief Alma Whitten said at the Google Blog yesterday, US time.
But critics including European privacy agencies and US consumer watchdogs argued the recent policy, which offers no ability to opt out apart from refraining from signing into Google services, gives the web giant unprecedented ability to observe its users.
"Calling this a 'privacy policy' is Orwellian doublespeak," said John Simpson of the usa advocacy group Consumer Watchdog.
"Google isn't telling you about protecting your privacy. Google is telling you the way they'll gather information regarding you on all its services, combine it in new ways and use the fat new digital dossiers to sell more ads.
They're telling you the way they plan to spy on you. It is a spy policy."
A coalition of European and US consumer advocacy groups made a final-ditch entice internet search and advertising giant Google on Wednesday to delay the changes.
In a joint letter to Google chief executive Larry Page, the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue urged Google to delay implementation of the changes, saying it is going to "combine data from your whole services... right into a single profile without user consent and with none meaningful opportunity for users to opt-out."
The French consumer data protection agency CNIL warned this week that Google could be in violation of European privacy norms.
"The CNIL and the european data protection authorities are deeply excited by the integration of non-public data across services: They've strong doubts in regards to the lawfulness and fairness of such processing," a letter from the French agency said.
US Federal Trade Commission chairman Jon Leibowitz has said Google is forcing users to make a "brutal choice" - ending its use of the service or complying with the recent monitoring scheme.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center said that is appealing a judge's ruling that dismissed its legal challenge to Google's privacy policy. The crowd says Google is violating a settlement it reached with the FTC requiring the corporate to give protection to user data.
Technology analyst Shelly Palmer said Google had gone too far within the new policy.
"i do not believe any single thought of the aggregation of information or using technology has ever made me as uncomfortable as this announcement," Palmer said in a up to date blog post.
"On its best day, with every ounce of technology the united states government could muster, it may not know a fragment as much about any folks as Google does now."
Google announced in January it was revising its privacy policies and changing the way it uses data from users of its services to produce more personalized search results and advertisements.
The Mountain View, California-based firm said the changes are designed to enhance the user experience around the various Google products, and provides the firm a more integrated view of its users, a bonus enjoyed by Apple and Facebook.
"Our new privacy policy removes those inconsistencies with a view to make more of your information available to you when using Google," Whitten said.
"So someday, once you do frequent searches for Jamie Oliver, lets recommend Jamie Oliver videos when you are seeking recipes on YouTube - or we'd suggest ads for his cookbooks when you are on other Google properties.
- AFP
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