Google's new privacy rules, March 1, 2012

Google has many products and over 60 privacy policies. It is going to standardize them to create a "beautifully simple and intuitive experience" based on five principles. The "information" referred to in the principles is what we the users have provided the company and what it has collected about us in the years we've been using Google--which is a lot, by the way.

1. Use information to provide our users with valuable products and services.
2. Develop products that reflect strong privacy standards and practices.
3. Make the collection of personal information transparent.
4. Give users meaningful choices to protect their privacy.
5. Be a responsible steward of the information we hold.

For instance, Google tracks every search I make using its search engine--I do use some other products, but rarely. Yesterday I read a number of articles in print/on-line newspapers--I can either look at my search history provided by Microsoft or click on a Google feature that will tell me the top 8 sites I visited recently including Facebook, my blog, my site meter, articles about Charles Murray, articles in a Tea Party aggregator of news stories, Glenn Beck TV, electronic health records, and something about the welfare state. This tab is color coded to tell me how actively I've been searching those topics. I can click to the next page, which suggests that since I read the New York Times, perhaps I'd like to visit some other newspapers (I'm pretty sure I visit WaPo more often than NYT, but perhaps the origin of the article is what is counted).

I certainly don't keep my politics a secret since I hit a lot of hot button topics here, but just what does "responsible steward" mean when a huge mega-corporation lobbies and donates heavily to political candidates, has recently lost a court case brought by the government and been fined for illegal activity (pharmacy ads), and it carefully tracks every possible angle I research? I also search a lot of religious and theology sites--is that algorithm suppressed? Is it stewardship of their resources or my privacy that matters? (I know the answer to that!) They do, after all, have a responsibility to their stockholders and employees, their "owners." The fact that I can click on a tab and see just what Google is tracking about me I suppose meets principle 3, transparency.

Always keep in mind that Google is not your servant, slave, or employee--it is a highly sophisticated tool that exists only to sell a product/products to keep its investors happy and well paid. You only have to read to learn this, but because it does such a good job, you can be lulled into believing "Google is your friend."

Knowing a little bit about you can help make Google products better, both for you and for others. By understanding your preferences we can ensure that we give you the search results that you’re looking for, and by analyzing the search logs of millions of users in aggregate, we can continually improve our search algorithm, develop new features, keep our systems secure and even predict the next flu outbreak.