<p>[Google</a> privacy policy: ‘Search giant will know more about you than your partner’ | Mail Online](<a href=“Google privacy policy: 'Search giant will know more about you than your partner' | Daily Mail Online”>Google privacy policy: 'Search giant will know more about you than your partner' | Daily Mail Online)</p>
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<p>I wonder how any people will switch to using Bing or Yahoo or something else now?</p>
<p>Please excuse a question from an old dinosaur (I, of the punch card & Fortran era, haven’t kept current.) Whenever I check my gmail account, I clear cookies/wipe history before signing in to read email. Once I’ve checked my email, I log out and clear cookies/do a quick swipe with CCleaner (usually closing my browser momentarily) before going on to other sites. The only time I open another window while signed into gmail (or any other email service) is when I want to send a link to some page and need to copy its address. I’ve never remained logged in to any email service while doing other things online. When I visit YouTube, I don’t log in to an account. Also, whenever I participate in a forum, such as this one, that requires users to have an account, I follow the same pattern of logging out and clearing cookies when I’m done.</p>
<p>So, given the actions I described, is there any reason for me to be concerned about the new privacy policies? Is there anything else I could/should do to maintain privacy, other than refusing to make use of any of G’s sites?</p>
<p>Sensationalistic bull. Tell me why I should care if google is making its search results and ad service more suited for me. Where is the bad part if I’m not one of the few “who are not accustomed to having their information shared across different Web sites” and inexplicably think this is a big deal?</p>
<p>“Big brother-ish?” Really?</p>
<p>Who cares? Everything you do is already tracked. Very few people are going to switch- it’s the same as when facebook updates and people go crazy for a while.</p>
<p>I feel that BING and YAHOO and FACEBOOK (ESP.) are of much greater concern related to privacy invasion than Google. I don’t have a FACEBOOK page of any kind because I feel they are so invasive.</p>
<p>I just started using gmail a few weeks ago and I found it creepy that ads appeared based on the content of email sent to me by others. Now I’ve learned that they “look” at all email, in-coming and out-going. I guess this isn’t new, I just didn’t know it. I’m concerned that this does cross a line that I don’t want crossed. (Not that I have anything to hide…I just don’t think the people who send email to me have agreed to this.)</p>
<p>Having a computer program scan my emails looking for keywords to pick ads to show me is not that big of a deal. </p>
<p>I find this to be much creepier:</p>
<p>[MediaPost</a> Publications Videology Measures Offline Segments Of In-Stream Videos 01/26/2012](<a href=“Videology Measures Offline Segments Of In-Stream Videos 01/26/2012”>Videology Measures Offline Segments Of In-Stream Videos 01/26/2012)</p>
<p>They are trying to associate what ads you watch with what you actually end up buying, and feed that back to the ads you see.</p>
<p>Google’s changes are not material especially if you compare them to Facebook’s policies which can be summarized as “you think it is your information and pictures, but we really own them and will do what we want with them because we are Facebook and are thieves.”</p>
<p>AFAIK, Google uses a cookie to identify you. However, for the paranoid, you should know that your browser provides information that could be used to identify you. See [url=<a href=“http://panopticlick.eff.org%5DPanopticlick%5B/url”>http://panopticlick.eff.org]Panopticlick[/url</a>].</p>
<p>Regarding privacy, Google’s policy is essentially we remember everything about you, but promise not to tell anyone else. For the short-term, the promise seems credible to me, but the long-term is iffy. Facebook started off with a similar policy.</p>
<p>If the standard for communication privacy is US Mail, then Google falls short. I think many of us would like email to be as confidential as US Mail, but Google can’t provide email for free without some other way to make money off of you.</p>
<p>IMO, the BIG deal became apparent after reading an article about online surfing in Kiplingers last month. Theoretically, it’s not a far stretch that the personal data being mined about you based upon your online activity – OR THAT OF YOUR FACEBOOK FRIENDS-- could be shared with: (1) prospective employers who may shun you if online activity determines you’ve been associated with lawsuits or a poor credit history, (2) medical insurance providers who may decline coverage if you’ve been visiting sites about particular conditions/diseases, (3) long term care insurance providers – see #2. You get the picture. It’s a wee frightening.</p>