Google Announced a Major Revision of its Privacy Policy

These changes will take effect on 1 st March for Google account holders, said the Californian group, adding that many users of its services would be informed by email. Google said that users will accept the new charter to continue to use their accounts if they do not accept , they will no longer use Google services, but can recover their data.

Under the new rules, Google will consolidate information from multiple services, previously separate, and have a global vision and users. Specifically, the revision results in the fusion rules for the use of sixty in one, designed to regulate almost all Google products like Gmail e-mail or social networking Google + house. “To sum ​​up , we will treat you as a user unique across all our products, ” said Alma Whitten , an official in charge of Google‘s privacy issues.

More relevant results?

Thus, according to Google, users will benefit from “better” in their Internet searches, Google is charging to analyze their claims by drawing in a particular service. “Maybe you can we say that you will be late for appointments taking into account your location, your calendar or traffic conditions ” , explains the company. “We can provide more relevant advertising as well. For example if you are not focused on the gym, advertisements for fitness classes will not be very useful ” , says Google. The group ensures the search engine, however, that users’ personal information will not be sold to third parties.

But the redesign has had a mixed reception. “When you read [the new rules] between the lines” , advance the specialized site Zdnet.com, “it is clear that the new privacy policy of Google is designed to” encourage users to use in Google +, in direct competition with Facebook, an industry leader. An argument refuted by Peter Fleischer , responsible for protecting the privacy of Google, during a conference call Tuesday morning, that there is “no connection” between this simplification and promotion of the social network group .

In announcing the new rules over a month before their entry into force, Google seems to leave time to avoid possible disputes. In March, the U.S. competition authority (FTC, Federal Trade Commission) announced to have reached an agreement with Google to resolve a dispute concerning the confidentiality of “Buzz”, a social network now closed, but had the subject of several complaints of Internet in its infancy. Under this agreement, the U.S. giant had put in place a comprehensive program to improve the confidentiality of user data and will be subject to independent checks over the next twenty years.

AUTHORITIES PROTECTION

“Of course we have consulted with the protection of privacy, the FTC as the CNIL in France,” said Peter Fleischer. “Simplification of our policies for readability seems to go in the direction advocated by the different authorities ” , he considers. The rules, however, could change soon: The European Commission has unveiled in the coming days the outline of the revision of the Directive on privacy, which will set the European legislative framework for years to come .

The amendment to the privacy policy of Google is not likely she not to suffer ? “The Commission will propose amendments, but it’s a long process that can take two years ” , said Mr. Fleischer. “We will not stop for two years, the time seems ripe for simplification, and we would be surprised that greater clarity of our policy is not consistent with what the EU decide. ”

Some services, however, maintain a policy of separate data protection. The online payment system Google Wallet will keep its own rules, “to conform to prevailing legal rules for financial services ” , the browser Chrome, which has experienced very strong growth over the past two years, will also have a policy protection “much more detail, because a browser is a very different services ‘classic’ Google as Gmail “.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 27th, 2012 at 7:28 pm and is filed under Technology. Tags: Google You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.