Google did recently a significant change in the company's privacy policies that greatly change the way the company monitors Internet users.
Previously, the company owned the DoubleClick advertising engine outside its core services such as Gmail, Search or YouTube. So users were able to choose whether Google could use their information for promotional purposes as long as they were opt-in for it.
Those who chose not to provide information to Google were effectively depriving the company of the right (and well) to store "personal" information and their online activity for advertising purposes.
But the change brought about by the new privacy policy of the company seems to change everything, less to the old and more to the new users.
The following phrase has been removed from the previous privacy policy:
"We will not combine DoubleClick cookie information with personally identifiable information unless we have your consent."
And it was replaced by the following sentence:
"Depending on your account settings, your activity on other websites and applications, we may use your personal information to improve Google services and ads displayed by Google."
If you did not understand there is an example explaining what the company says in detail:
This activity may come from using Google products such as Chrome Sync or from visits to sites and applications that partner with Google. Many websites and apps work with Google to improve their content and services. For example, a website can use our advertising services (like AdSense) or analytics tools (like Google Analytics).
These products share information with Google about your activity, depending on your account settings and the products you use (for example, when a partner uses Google Analytics in conjunction with our advertising services), these data may be related to your personal information.
Please note that the ads you see on the internet are powered by DoubleClick. Think about Adsense for example: it can use personal information like your name or your web activity to deliver personalized ads just for you.
Google does not use all your information for the example above with Adsense. The content of Gmail emails, for example, is not used to feed DoubleClick online ads.
However, this change is enabled by default for new Google users. This means that each new Google account is automatically configured to use personal data for tracking and advertising purposes.
What can you do; Check your Google account activity to make sure that your settings do not allow you to track and record events.
You will need to open it Activity Controls. There you will find the settings for Web & App Activity. If you consider your personal data very important, disable any enabled option. Also make sure to clear the "Include Chrome browsing history and activity from sites and apps that use Google services" option.
Try and write us if it was activated…
George is still wondering what he is doing here….
