Spartan Daily

Google's new privacy policy will combine over sixty policies into one

Google announced in late January new changes to its privacy policy, compressing over sixty policies into just one applied over all Google services.

The policy changes expect to make the Google experience "seamless" for users, as stated on the search engine's public policy blog.

If Google account users are signed in, Google may combine information provided for one service with information received from other services, which include Gmail, Maps, Android, Chrome, and YouTube.

"The changes made by Google don't necessarily sound so bad to me," said sophomore accounting major Kris Penera. "As long as they're not reading through my emails."

Members of Congress expressed concerns on the policy in regards to users' privacy, which Google responded to with a letter on Jan. 30.

"We've written our main Google Privacy Policy to make it much more readable, while incorporating most of our existing service-specific privacy notices," Google's public policy director Pablo Chavez stated.

Google's "Policies and Principles" Web page explains that unless limited by specific restriction, the privacy policy allows Google to apply generally-used data to improve the company's services.

The company ensures that under the new policy users are treated "as a single entity across all our services, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience."

Google explains on the policies and principles page what information is collected and how it is used.

Log data, account information, and service data is collected, which allows Google processors to record search history, account information provided by the user, and data that is not associated with any user.

"I don't really like the idea of someone having access to my emails, information, and especially my search history," senior psychology major Ashley Rivera said. "It almost sounds like I'm being watched."

According to advertising professor Tim Hendrick, access to user search history helps advertisers target their audience in a more efficient and cost-effective manner.

"Companies like AOL and Yahoo have been doing the same thing for years," Hendrick said. "Google's just bigger right now."

Google's servers are able to use search history to gather information in directing advertisers to which consumers would most likely be interested in their products.

Google is also granting the same search history access to YouTube, which could result in users receiving recommended videos based off of their previous Google searches, according to the Google policies and principles page.

Users have the option of turning off the search history application or they can choose to edit the privacy options in their personal settings.

"I like the idea of Google trying to make things easier for the users," said senior kinesiology major Calvin Nguyen. "If it makes my use of the Internet easier because they're able to remember what I'm interested in, I'm all for it."

In the letter to Congress, Chavez explains that the policy change was something that lawmakers and regulators have asked of technology companies.

By compiling several of the separate privacy policies into one main policy that covers all Google services, the wording is reduced by 85 percent, according to the Google blog post.

The privacy policy changes will be effective on March 1.