Offering users what it calls less “legal gloop to wade through,” Google announced a new master privacy policy and terms of service on Tuesday via the company’s blog.
Google began notifying users of the change coming to its terms of service and privacy policies, which will take effect on March 1.
Rather than 70 privacy documents, Google has created one main privacy policy to govern its many products. What this means: Google can pull
information from one service and deliver it to you via another, fusing Google+ with Gmail with YouTube, for example, and whatever other Google products you use.
As your individual search becomes more customized, what this means for advertisers is the potential to reach a more targeted audience.
“In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience,” the blog post notes. Check out Google’s video explanation below.
This change comes a couple weeks after Google announced Search Plus Your World. Google+ results would pop-up in searches before Twitter results, even if Twitter or other social networks are more relevant. Twitter, along with many commenters, noted the possibility that their search results would be biased toward Google products.
Sure, everyone would like legal documents to be easier to understand. But let’s not forget about the advertisers — who are mentioned for just a second in the explanation video accompanying Tuesday’s news. These new setting could also help Google rake in more ad revenue.
“Over time, it will result in better search results and ads,” says Google’s privacy policy explanation video.
Google’s blog post concludes by explaining what has not changed — the company still “promotes data liberation” (you can take your data out of Google products) and transparency. Google says it will never sell your information.
The company doesn’t go into great detail about the changes to terms of service, other than the new terms will be compacted into one document — just like the new privacy rules.
Google paints the new privacy policies as a virtual personal assistant, which could prove very useful. Alma Whitten, Director of Privacy, Product and Engineering, writes:
“We can make search better—figuring out what you really mean when you type in Apple, Jaguar or Pink. We can provide more relevant ads too. For example, it’s January, but maybe you’re not a gym person, so fitness ads aren’t that useful to you. We can provide reminders that you’re going to be late for a meeting based on your location, your calendar and an understanding of what the traffic is like that day. Or ensure that our spelling suggestions, even for your friends’ names, are accurate because you’ve typed them before.”
In October 2010, Google re-wrote its privacy policies to include less legal jargon and increase transparency. The company has long been concerned with user privacy, but has also received its share of criticism.
What do you think about Google’s new privacy policies and terms of service? Sound off in the comments.
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