| | | Google under Fire with New Privacy Policy | |
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Posts : 6136 Join date : 2009-08-15
| Subject: Google under Fire with New Privacy Policy Thu Mar 01, 2012 3:56 pm | |
| [size=55:dwkqr4pm] BBC news
Google under Fire as It Goes Ahead with New Privacy Policy
Internet company Google launched on March 1 its new privacy policy despite warnings from the EU that it might violate European law and criticism by campaign groups.
The change means private data collected by one Google service can be shared with its other platforms including YouTube, Gmail and Blogger.
Google said the new set-up would enable it to tailor search results better.
Google's business model - the selling of ads targeted on individual user behaviour - relies on collecting browsing information from its visitors.
Until today, this information was kept apart between services.
The new agreement, which users cannot opt out of unless they stop using Google's services, will mean activity on all of the company's sites will be linked.
Logging out of Google's services will reduce the amount of data stored by the company, although - like many other sites - it will still store anonymous data about web activity.
Data regulators in France have cast doubt on the legality of the move and launched a Europe-wide investigation.
France's privacy watchdog CNIL wrote to Google earlier this week, urging a " pause" in rolling out the revised policy.
" The CNIL and EU data authorities are deeply concerned about the combination of personal data across services," the regulator wrote.
" They have strong doubts about the lawfulness and fairness of such processing, and its compliance with European data protection legislation."
The regulator said it would send Google questions on the changes by mid-March.
In response, Google's global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer said he was happy to answer any concerns CNIL had.
" As we've said several times over the past week, while our privacy policies will change on 1st March, our commitment to our privacy principles is as strong as ever," Fleischer wrote in a blog post.
The company rejected the regulator's request to hold off on making the changes. Users are being moved on to the new single policy shortly after midnight on 1 March, local time.
" Google is putting advertisers' interests before user privacy and should not be rushing ahead before the public understand what the changes will mean," Nick Pickles, director at campaign group Big Brother Watch, commented in an interview for BBC. |
| | | willowsend Mega user
Posts : 2271 Join date : 2009-11-10 Age : 84 Location : Dobrich
| Subject: Re: Google under Fire with New Privacy Policy Fri Mar 02, 2012 11:41 am | |
| What are forum members thoughts on this report
[size=150:32c0jfdo]Now Google can spy on everything we do on the net March 2 2012 at 11:16am Daily Mail by SEAN POULTER
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Google rolls out new privacy policy London - Google has triggered outrage by pressing ahead with a new system that will invade the privacy of millions of computer users – and may even be illegal.
The technology giant on Thursday put into place fresh rules that allow it to monitor much more information about our internet use.
It can analyse use of YouTube, social network sites and is even able to search personal email exchanges for key words.
Crucially, the new rules allow it for the first time to then combine that data to build an ever-more intricate picture of personal habits.
The rules will permit private data to be shared between Google-owned services such as Gmail, YouTube or its Google+ social networking site.
Only those who use a Google account to access the services will be affected. Those who use Google simply as a search engine will not. Users can opt out of the new policy only by cancelling their account. Despite its desire to collect users’ data, however, when the Daily Mail asked Google on Thursday night how many UK account holders it had, the firm refused to say, insisting the information was commercially sensitive and therefore private.
It is thought the number must run into millions. Once Google has harvested the data, it will use it to boost advertising income by allowing companies to target account holders with marketing tailored to their interests.
However, the move has triggered concerns in the EU, which is investigating if it could be illegal.
Separately, privacy campaigners say the ability to spy on computer users without their explicit permission goes too far.
The EU has set up a committee of data protection watchdogs from across the continent – including Britain’s Information Commissioner – to investigate privacy issues.
And it has tasked France’s data protection watchdog – CNIL – to look at the Google case. Significantly, it has cast doubt on the legality and fairness of the new policy.
CNIL told Google in a letter dated February 27 that it would send it questions by mid-March.The French regulator wrote: “The CNIL and EU data authorities are deeply concerned about the combination of personal data across services: they have strong doubts about the lawfulness and fairness of such processing, and its compliance with European data protection legislation.”
Despite this warning, Google went ahead with the changes.
The tussle over data privacy comes at a delicate time for Google.It is already being investigated by the authorities in both the EU and US over whether it favours its own products in its search results.
EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said European authorities believe Google is breaking the law “in numerous respects” with its new privacy policy.
“One is that nobody had been consulted, it is not in accordance with the law on transparency and it utilises the data of private persons in order to hand it over to third parties, which is not what the users have agreed to,” she told BBC Radio.
Nick Pickles, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: “The public are in the dark about what the changes actually mean.
“Companies should not be allowed to bury in legal jargon and vague statements how they handle our personal information.”
Lawyer Susan Hall, of legal firm Cobbetts, said: “Since the new policy would pool all data collected from Google search, YouTube, Gmail and Google+, any measures taken to protect privacy and identity would be violated.” But Peter Barron, of Google, said the changes represent a simplification of its security policies, bringing them down from 60 to one.
“We announced in January that these changes were coming, and since then we have carried out a huge notification programme, including an email to every Google account holder,” he said. - Daily Mail |
| | | starlite Mega user
Posts : 1784 Join date : 2009-10-11
| Subject: Re: Google under Fire with New Privacy Policy Fri Mar 02, 2012 11:46 am | |
| what email |
| | | willowsend Mega user
Posts : 2271 Join date : 2009-11-10 Age : 84 Location : Dobrich
| Subject: Re: Google under Fire with New Privacy Policy Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:02 pm | |
| - starlite wrote:
- what email
May be this is what they are talking about iGoogle is getting a new look You will automatically get upgraded to the new look soon. If you don't want to wait for the new look, you can switch to it today. Learn more Switch to the new look Continue to the old look |
| | | starlite Mega user
Posts : 1784 Join date : 2009-10-11
| Subject: Re: Google under Fire with New Privacy Policy Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:31 pm | |
| surely, google would become a monopoly, being the sole provider of a product ( our personal data ) and offer this data to others. this to me is a classic example of greed breeds greed, its already a billion pound company, never satified are they and in a so called democratic country you have no say whatsoever. |
| | | therowfamily Super user
Posts : 529 Join date : 2010-03-09
| Subject: Re: Google under Fire with New Privacy Policy Fri Mar 02, 2012 3:52 pm | |
| It's nothing new really they already do this type of thing and have been for years its now they are letting you know. |
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