Changes to the Google Privacy Policies

I saw the news story yesterday and found an email in my folder this morning. Google have changed their privacy policies. Email pertains to reported removal of over 60 different privacy policies across all of Google and replacing them with one that is said to be a lot shorter and easier to read.

This new policy is used to cover multiple products and features it is said. Also comments like reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across google have bound about. So what does this privacy policy say??? What does it cover????

Looking further into this some headings like Easy to work across Google , Tailored for you, Easy to share and collaborate, Protecting your privacy hasn't changed, Understand how Google uses your data and Got questions? We got answers are highlighted on pages with some text below.. But again, what does this really mean to us the users?

Reading the policy it explains details such as what data is collected from you and how it is collected, how that information is then used and choices they offer on that data.

For an example on this the policy and information collected. There are two defined ways of getting data, one is data you give when setting up the account and second is data collected while using a google service. So, watch what websites you visit ;-) You really need to read the policy for more details but you would be surprised on the information collected while using a google service. Again as an example, your hardware specifics, OS and even any mobile network information (including your mobile number). What, you didn't want them to have that... Well don't log into google accounts from your mobile phone.

If I were to go through list of information this blog would be far too long. Lets say that a lot is collected and quite a bit that you didn't realize.

But if they collect all this information how is it used. I mean, they collect data about you that you didn't know and you are probably now feeling *crap* how is it used. Well the info maybe used for your profile across all of the services that require a google account. In this they may replace existing data (such as names) automatically - so if you had a specific name used on that its good bye to that probably.

Reading all other parts of how data is used makes me a little twitchy at times. Its quite a scary prospect that there is this data and how its used. However, if you want your gmail or youtube then we may just have to live with that.

There are choices that can be taken to control the use of some of this data. You need to go just over halfway through the policy to reach this bit. I recommend you read it..

In short, I didn't want to go and talk about the entire policy as that would take just too much time. What I did want to do is highlight some bits to push you to go and read it for yourself. At the end of the day, this info is about you and you need to know how it is collected and used.