Google are changing their privacy policy for good, tomorrow.
Google is getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies and replacing them with one single policy that it says is “much easier to read” and comes into effect from March 1st.
Google users may still opt out of the new settings, which will mean the Internet mammoth will still collate your personal history but will remain anonymous for the next 18 months. The changes will mainly affect logged in users.
However, it appears you will still be able to delete your Google history even after the changes come into place tommorrow.
“Our privacy policy is changing, our commitment to privacy isn’t. The privacy changes do not change a users’s privacy settings – and in fact, users can at anytime log onto to look at, edit, delete and pause their web history, ” the Internet giant told SmartHouse.
And it will collating information about you – from Android devices, Gmail profile, YouTube and Internet searches, collecting everything from your phone number calls log, IP address, web searches, cookies, and user locations, according to its new Privacy Policy.
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This unified picture it now will have of every Googler means the tech giant, that goes by the slogan “don’t be evil”, will have a complete picture of everything you ever do or have ever searched for online.
The search giant will also use various technologies to determine your location, including sensor data from your mobile device that will provide information on nearby Wi-Fi access points and cell towers.
However, this is only done in things like mobile Maps, where it’s fundamental to how the app works or what it does for you, a Google spokesperson said.
“We may collect information about the services that you use and how you use them, like when you visit a website that uses our advertising services or you view and interact with our ads and content,” its revamped privacy policy also states.
However, Google insist the changes are merely “reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience” and will “use the information we collect from all of our services to provide, maintain, protect and improve them.”
But in reality, the changes will improve its targeted advertising services which can now learn far more about the consumers it is trying to market products and service to.
If you want to delete your history, go to Google Dashboard and follow the steps. To delete YouTube history, click your user name at the right hand corner and select Video Manager, then select ‘History’ and then delete.
And the Australian Privacy Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim, is not happy with the Google privacy changes.
He penned a letter to Google dated February 28 expressing concerns and says the “combining personal information from across different services has the potential to significantly impact on the privacy of individuals.”
“Although sensitive information will not be used to serve ads via a cookie or anonymous identifier, Google will nevertheless collect sensitive personal information,” the PC believes.
“We would be interested if Google could clarify its policies regarding deletion of information and handling of sensitive personal information,” the letter also states.
Google had not responded to the Privacy Commissioners concerns, a spokesperson from the Office of Australian Information Commissioner told SmartHouse, but Google has since informed us it has responded to the PC.
And the French Privacy Commissioner also believes the new policy breaches EU privacy laws as does the Canadian Privacy Commissioner and US Attorney General, both of whom are far from happy with the new proposals either.
