Big News: Google Changes Privacy Rules

One of the hottest topics in the world right now is that Google is changing it's privacy policy. As of today, Google will consolidate some 60 privacy policies for different services into a single policy that governs how the company employs user data.

The new policy means all the information Google collects about you on its platforms — including YouTube — will be put into one database so advertisers can get a better idea of consumer patterns and behaviour. 

Google says it's doing so to make its policies easier to understand-something lawmakers and regulators have asked for--and to improve the Google user experience by making information from one Google service available to other Google services that might benefit from that data. 

For a time, it looked like Google had made peace with privacy, after the embarrassing revelations in 2010 that it had inadvertently been collecting WiFi packet data through software in its Street View cars. … But fearful of being outmaneuvered by Facebook, Google ignored heightened regulatory scrutiny over search-related antitrust issues and began mixing its so-called organic search results with Google+ search results. That only made lawmakers more mistrustful and competitors more vocal.

One must understand that there has to be a trade-off of receiving high-quality, innovative, web services for free in exchange for giving the company the right to monetize the information it gathers in the process. This is the trade-off that makes the free web work – including this blog...the irony is that Google isn't necessarily any worse than its peers in terms of the way it handles consumer data.  

I attached this link if you are interested in learning more to protect yourself.

source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/privacy/232601809