Google announced on Monday that it would be enacting a new privacy policy that, when customers agree to it, will allow the company to collect and store information across all of its services. Not only that, but Google will share information gathered across those services in order to "maintain, protect and improve" the services, but also to target search results and ads for each user. There is no way to opt out of the information-sharing aside from deleting your entire account and saying goodbye to your Gmail, YouTube videos, and Calendar, among other things. Users may feel that this is a backhanded gesture on Google's part, but the new privacy policy may also raise issues with the company's agreement with the FTC.
Google has been able to see and use its users' information for a long time, as in targeted ads displayed alongside Gmail. With the new privacy policy, Google will store information from all of the services a person might use, including location and application information from smartphones, Google Wallet, Google+, your search and viewing history in YouTube and Maps, books you browse, RSS feeds you read, and your Blogger posts marked "private." The company can then share that information across all of those services.
All of this information has been passing in front of Google's eyes in a glittering stream for years, but now they're putting a bucket underneath it. While information shared across services may make for a more integrated experience, it also creates a more complete picture of users that can be tacked onto the advertising dartboard.
Google isn't the first to dig its fingers into service information and receive blowback. Facebook has been tiptoeing over that line for years, and occasionally returning to the other side, recanting. But Facebook is a service predicated on sharing information with others, and the Beacon marketing fiasco aside, there's not as much there that users didn't put there themselves.
Google, on the other hand, has made itself essential with free services like YouTube and Gmail. The cost of dropping off Facebook is increased difficulty in stalking your peers, plus nagging questions about why you don't have Facebook. The cost of dropping off Google is, often as not, moving your entire online system for managing communication and information in multiple media elsewhere.
Privacy groups such as Common Sense Media are concerned about users' inability to opt out of the information collection and sharing. "Even if the company believes that tracking users across all platforms improves their services, consumers should still have the option to opt out," Common Sense Media CEO James Steyer said in a statement. Steyer noted that the ability to opt out would be particularly important for kids and teens who use Google's services; the default setting, he says, should be "opt-in" if you're interested in the integrated experience Google is selling with its collected information.
Google's new privacy policy is not yet in effect, but the company is set to adopt it on March 1. But they may not get that far: Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told Ars that opting users into services violates Google's consent order with the FTC. "Google is not allowed, under the settlement, to opt users in. If Google goes forward, they may be hit with serious monetary penalties," said Rotenberg.
A Google spokesperson told Ars, however, that the consent order with FTC concerns the company's sharing of information with third parties, which the new privacy policy will not affect. But Rotenberg argued that the new information sharing practices resemble too closely "Google's attempt to use the data of Gmail subscribers to launch Buzz without consent," which prompted FTC to create the consent order in the first place.
Google has also released a new Terms of Service alongside its privacy policy. In one section, the company states in all caps, "Other than as expressly set out in these terms or additional terms, neither Google nor its suppliers or distributors make any specific promises about the services. For example, we don't make any commitments about the specific function of the services, or their reliability, availability, or ability to meet your needs. We provide the services 'as is.'"
It's easy to think that because a free service serves you now, it will serve you forever. And it's hard to feel like you aren't owed something by Google and its services. By using Google's services, you do pay the company's bills after all. Unlike software you buy outright, you can pull support for Google if disagree with how they operate, but always at the cost of shaking your dependency.
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