Google's New Privacy Policy Raises Concerns

Google used to say its mission was to organize all the world's information. Now its mission, judging from its new privacy policy, is to organize all the information it has about you.

The new policy means that anything you do on almost any of Google's 60 or so services will affect what you see on other Google services. This raises any number of questions, including:

• How does it do that? By following you and keeping track of what you do.
• How do you opt out? You don't.
• Is it anonymous? Not exactly. 

Basically, Google will now be combining all the personal data you share with any of its products or sites, except for Google Chrome, Google Books and Google Wallet, hoping to create a more comprehensive picture of you.

This means that anytime you’re signed into your Google account, whether on a computer, tablet, or Android phone, Google collects information about your activities and adds it to its growing profile of who you are, what you do and so forth.

Who benefits?

What's the benefit?  Well, the benefit to Google is that it will be able to provide more closely targeted ads, increasing the likelihood of your clicking on one of them and ringing its cash register. 

The benefit to you -- well, that's a little harder to define. Alma Whitten, Google's Director of Privacy, Product and Engineering, says on Google's Blog that by integrating all of its information about you, Google will be better able to  “figure[e] out what you really mean when you type in Apple, Jaguar or Pink.”

Not only that, says Whitten, Google will be able to “provide reminders that you’re going to be late for a meeting based on your location, your calendar and an understanding of what the traffic is like that day” and “ensure that our spelling suggestions, even for your friends’ names, are accurate.”  

Kind of creepy?

While this perhaps creates some benefits for consumers, it also presents some  possibilities the ACLU of Massachusetts refers to as "creepy."  

For example, if you conduct a search or have an email conversation or watch a YouTube video about a topic you don't want your friends, parents, spouse or significant others to know about, Google's new policy means that your interest in that topic will be a part of your profile and may influence the search results, ads and content suggestions for an indefinite period of time.

Then there's the issue of keeping one's personal and professional lives separate.  There are many among us who use one email address and profile  for professional or job-related activities while keeping a separate identity for private lives.

Doctors routinely shield their personal from their professional information, trying to keep at least a few hours to themselves. Police officers and prosecutors prefer not to make their home address and family information available to murderers and other dangerous criminals. Same for ministers, teachers, journalists and others whose public persona subjects them -- and their families -- to abuse from anonymous strangers.

While there may be ways around this going forward, it appears there's not much to be done about information that's already out there.  Google says it will “replace past names associated with your Google Account so that you are represented consistently across all our services.” 

Government surveillance

What’s more, this data aggregation is not just about what ads you see but creates an even larger treasure chest of personal information for government investigators to rummage through.

Don't think this is something to worry about?  It's worthwhile taking a look at Google's "Transparency Report," which details the thousands of government requests it receives for information about individual consumers.

In the first six months of 2011, Google received 5,950 requests from government agencies in the U.S. seeking data on 11,057 individuals. It complied with 93% of them.

The ACLU is so concerned about this and other online privacy issues that it has launched a campaign called Demand Your dotRights, hoping to organize consumer protests and, presumably, legal action against what it perceives as unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.