In Dec 2009, then Google CEO Eric Schmidt told CNBC, "If you have something that you don\\\’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn\\\’t be doing it in the first place,” It was the first time Google raised some concerns regarding their privacy policy.
This year in a Jan 24 Blog Post, Google wrote, "In short, we\\\’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience,”
From March, your Google account’s web history will be shared with all the Google products you use. When Google’s former privacy policy was in place, it did not use your web history (sites you visit, pictures you view, and videos you watch) across products (Gmail, YouTube, Google Docs, Google +, Picasa Photo organizer and editor, Google Talk, Android OS for mobiles). The Google Chrome browser though, will still be governed by separate privacy policies.
Now to ‘enrich’ user-experience, Google will be monitoring your interaction with Google products which will help it sell ads more suited to ‘what you are looking for’.
The Internet—for most people—usually starts with Google. The search page of Google is one of the most visited homepages for internet users.
If you are a regular Google user, you might have observed how Google encourages you to ‘Sign In’, so that your Google experience is improved. Google uses your data to analyze your interests, and displays related content on your screen. All the keywords you search for and the websites you visit are stored in your web history. According to the new privacy policy, this web history will be used by Google to feed related ads and links to the particular user.
Opinions regarding the customized Google homepage vary. For those who see it as a problem, it can be tackled. Matt Elliot, a technology writer suggests removing your Google Web history before the search giant starts using your personal sensitive information across its products.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California, and the Consumer Watchdog advocacy group wrote to Google, asking the company to "assure Americans that Google will maintain the security and freedom that library patrons have long had: to read and learn about anything… without worrying that someone is looking over their shoulder or could retrace their steps".
On Tuesday, European regulators warned Google that its new privacy policy violates privacy rules. They had even requested Google to delay the decision. In a letter to Google CEO Larry Page, CNIL (France’s data protection agency) officials—after the review of the policy on behalf of EU members–said, “Google’s new policy does not meet the requirements of the European Directive on Data Protection.” In response to the letter, Google declined to delay the launch. It has, however, said that users can “avoid signing in to stop using Google products altogether, if they don’t like the changes.” You can use Google search, YouTube, Google Docs, Google Image Search, Google News, Google Maps and Google Books without signing in. Services like Gmail, Google +, Blogger, Google Calendar and Reader require you to sign in. Even without signing in, Google will still throw relevant ads on your screen based on the keywords you search for in services where you don’t need to sign in.
Google’s 99 percent revenue is generated through advertisements. Have you ever observed the ads that you get in Gmail? These ads are the ones that you are actually interested in. Google even uses your email content—personal data that you might not want to share with anyone—to throw relevant ads on your screen.
So what Google has said, means that all 350 million Gmail users worldwide have no option but to fall under that paradigm of their privacy policy.
The concept of ‘personal email’ is essentially being changed by Google; and migrating to an alternative email account not going to be easy.
There is no escaping the changes that the new privacy policy has brought upon us in our ‘internet’ experience; and now our virtual privacy that we incorporate with our real privacy is at risk of being transparent for Google. Almost 1 billion users of Google will have their private interests shared with Google.
But for those of you who don’t want Google to ‘analyze’ your online habits, you can check out this WDBJ7.com story which shows how to (at least) cope with the new policy.
Apart from steps like the ones mentioned in the article above, privacy advocates suggest using following softwares and techniques:
- Use Tor network, to get anonymous web proxy.
- Use Mozilla Firefox browser with FoxyProxy extension installed.
- Regularly clear browser cookies on exit.
(This article was first published in The Hoot)