Google Privacy Policies

[EmilyF]

I received a mail about this last week but thought it best that everybody knew about it. I know plenty of online businesses have multiple accounts under one mail address and this could make a big difference to some of you:

GOOGLE is changing its privacy policy, and if you have multiple accounts, identities or pseudonyms, you could be in for a surprise.

The search giant and YouTube-owner Google is changing its privacy policy on March 1 and the changes will ensure that individuals are represented consistently across its services, the company said.

What this means is that while a user may have elected to have different identities across a range of Google products such as YouTube or Gmail Google may standardise the account names if they are associated with the same email address.

Further, Google advises that under the policy it will be able to provide any user who has another user's email address or other "information that identifies" with a photo and name of the user if it has that information.

Google has said that it is replacing 60 different privacy policies with one that reflects the organisation's desire to "create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google".In its FAQ post explaining the changes, Google states "we can treat you as a single user across all our products".

This can mean that YouTube videos may be supplied to a work administrator if the user works, or attends school, at an enterprise that subscribes to Google Apps. This would occur only if the user signs on using a work or school email address.

Users who have personal and professional uses for Google can keep keep their accounts separate by using different email addresses for each account, a Google spokesman said.

However, for users who have enterprise accounts, and then use them for personal purposes, Google can provide device identifiers and phone numbers to their organisation.

For Android phone users, Google collects telephony logs such as a user's phone numer, the number of the person they are calling, the time and date of calls, the duration of calls and other data including wi-fi access points and mobile phone towers.

If a phone subscriber logs on to their work or school account using their Android phone, Google will be able to provide this information and the geo-location to a "domain administrator".

"This hasn't changed with the policy changes," the Google spokesman said. "This has always been the case."
What has changed is the incease in the number of workplaces and schools using Google Apps. If users are unaware of the implications of signing on using work or school email address they may be giving away more than their location and activities.

The administrator has the right to change the user's password or restrict their access to the Google account.
On the plus side, Google says it will be able to tell users when they are late for meetings based on their geo-location, their Calendar entries and the traffic conditions.

University of Sydney director of digital culture Dr Chris Chesher said: "Google have outsourced management of accounts to third parties and third parties have the ability to control those accounts.

"You have to give Google credit for at least stating their objectives with their privacy policy, which few companies do.

"However, it would be better if Google allowed users a more granular opt-in or opt-out process.
"It's part of this broader problem that is negotiating what is public and private and what is institutional and personal," Dr Chesher said.

"It's an unacknowledged but important thing that young people particularly have spaces that belong to them.
"If this (policy change) inavertently undermines that by revealing information that they consider to be private to their school then I can see that raises ethical questions.

"Google really mean well but they are driven by an engineering culture," Dr Chesher said.

(http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/goo...-1226255391181)

[Dunworking]

Judging by the reaction of Microsoft, there's plenty more data that Google are collecting that seems more than just a little bit suspicious:

http://www.news.com.au/business/brea...-1226261076437

Looks as if it's moving towards an all-out war.