SmashMouth

If you're amazed -- and maybe even a little alarmed -- about how much Google seems to know about you, brace yourself. Beginning Thursday, Google will operate under a streamlined privacy policy that enables the Internet's most powerful company to dig even deeper into the lives of its more than 1 billion users.



Google says the changes will make it easier for consumers to understand how it collects personal information, and allow the company to create more helpful and compelling services. Critics, including most of the country's state attorneys general and a top regulator in Europe, argue that Google is trampling on people's privacy rights in its relentless drive to sell more ads.
Here's a look at some of the key issues to consider as Google tries to learn about you.
Q: How will Google's privacy changes affect users?
A: Google Inc. is combining more than 60 different privacy policies so it will be able to throw all the data it gathers about each of its logged-in users into personal dossiers. The information Google learns about you while you enter requests into its search engine can be culled to suggest videos to watch when you visit the company's YouTube site.
SUMMARY
On March 1, Google unveils a new privacy policy that unifies policies on several Google properties.
Google says this makes it easier for people to follow the trail of personal information.
Critics worry Google is trampling on people's privacy rights in its relentless drive to sell more ads.
Users who write a memo on Google's online word processing program, Docs, might be alerted to the misspelling of the name of a friend or co-worker a user has communicated with on Google's Gmail. The new policy pools information from all Google-operated services, empowering the company to connect the dots from one service to the next.
Q: Why is Google making these changes?
A: The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., says it is striving for a "beautifully simple, intuitive user experience across Google." What Google hasn't spent much time talking about is how being able to draw more revealing profiles about its users will help sell advertising -- the main source of its $38 billion in annual revenue.
One reason Google has become such a big advertising network: Its search engine analyzes requests to figure out which people are more likely to be interested in marketing pitches about specific products and services. Targeting the ads to the right audience is crucial because in many cases, Google only gets paid when someone clicks on an ad link. And, of course, advertisers tend to spend more money if Google is bringing them more customers.


Read more: New Google privacy policy allows even more access to personal information | Fox News

SapperSaint

That's why they want you to regester, so you can turn off that dadgum "instant search" crap.

Slow world domination!

DOWN WITH GOOGLE!

QBREES9

LOL but whats the answer, Bing ?

saintfan

As a former Google Employee let me say the following:

There is NO SUCH THING as online security. Period. There are inherent security risks with being online. Period. Anyone who gets online...even 'anonymously' (yeah, right) at the library needs to understand this. It doesn't matter which browser you use. Your ISP of choice is irrelevant. Yes, there are best practices one can follow to limit what gets sent out to the rest of the world, but there is no way to prevent it completely short of unplugging.

I can guarantee you all that Google isn't out to compromise your information. They want to precisely target ads to you, and that is it and that is all. An intuitive online experience comes at a price, and that price is giving up some of your personal information. The scary thing isn't what Google would do with your information. The scary thing is what someone ELSE would do with it if the Google information was either (a) hacked or (b) the Government forced Google to disclose some or all of your information...personal information, account information, search history, etc.

Bing isn't the answer. Yahoo isn't the answer. The only way to avoid the security risk of being online is to NOT be online. If there is an organization which can be trusted with your information I can assure you it's Google, as long as Larry and Sergey are there. When those two leave (and one day they will), THEN worry. Google is clever. Google is not malicious, at least not on purpose (with a few rogue department exceptions historically).

In my opinion Google is as benevolent as any company its size could possibly be. YOU are Google's product. You are NOT Google's customer. Remember that and be smart. Get educated and fiercely protect your personal information. Watch your kid's every movement online. By and large the biggest online security risks don't have anything to do with Google. Pictures and personal information entered in forums like this one can potentially place you at risk...but consider this particular site has been around a LONG time and is well run and watched closely by Halo. This site has a history. That matters. Pay attention to stuff like that.

I saw Zooey Deschanel's private business address. I saw this online. I did not hack a damn thing. She posted a picture of a letter sent to her by President Obama on her birthday on her Facebook page.

Now, I already have all of her information because, you know, me and Zooey, we be tight like 'dat, but you get the point I hope. Your biggest security risk doesn't come from someone hacking your information or from Google trying to know as much as they can about you so they can display an ad you are likely to click on your computer. Your biggest security risk is your own ignorance of the potential for the most insignificant thing you might potentially do online.

C'mon Man...

papz

For sale in the middle of the Amazon forest.

SapperSaint

"She posted a picture of a letter sent to her by President Obama on her birthday on her Facebook page. "


Please don't tell me she is an Obama Mamma...... I just don't think I could take it.

saintfan

Na. Too fiscally conservative - she's in Southern Cali, and political world away from Northern Cali.

saintfan

Get OFF the internet and become the Uni-Bomber. LOL