Google has been taking some heat over privacy issues for years, but the criticism has really ramped up in recent months. Between the “Search Plus Your World” fiasco, which seemed to prioritize Google+ social results over competing (that’s the key word – competing) social networks, and now a revamped privacy policy, Google has stolen the show from the usual suspects and is now firmly in the privacy hawks’ sights. But is that really fair?
I’ll be the first to admit that I think privacy concerns are overblown – a more transparent society is a positive thing, provided that transparency flows both ways. But even if I was a privacy hawk, I’d want to consider exactly what Google is doing that everyone is up in arms about, because it sure looks pretty tame to me.
Basically, Google’s products – dozens and dozens of products – each had their own privacy policy before. You’d sign off on each one of them, probably without even reading it, and then go on your merry way, happily using the completely free, well designed, streamlined, reliable products. The new policy simply holds sway over the entire universe of Google products, and treats them all like a unified whole. This allows Google to share the information in between each product you’re using in one centralized database. That’s not wildly offensive to begin with, but on top of that, you retain the right to opt out, and even to modify the information that Google has stored on you. And of course, you can avoid the whole process entirely by simply not logging in to Google products – Google search would still function just fine for you.
Google is a major tenant in the internet community, and a central part of the web experience, so any changes to its policies are sure to generate some pushback. But it’s simply hard to take the privacy hawks seriously on this one when the alternatives are so plentiful (and in many ways, much worse for privacy).
I +1 the new policy
Related posts:
- Google – Better For Privacy Than You Think
- Privacy Goes Digital At Last
- Google Search Expands Its Reach
- Google+ Still Plussing
- Don’t Be Evil. No, Really.
This entry was posted on Friday, February 3rd, 2012 at 6:19 am and is filed under Cartoon Songs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.