In just over a week (March 1, 2012), Google will require all users to agree to their new Terms of Service (“TOS”) in order to continue to use Google products.
If you use Google’s search engine and none of their other services, you will not have to do anything. If you use Gmail, Google Docs, or any of Google’s other line, you will be required to agree to the new terms. There is no opt-out option.
Why is Google doing this? Google products and services, such as Gmail and Google Analytics, number over 60 right now and they all have a different TOS. Google wants to simplify the conditions under which they offer all of these products by combining and consolidating the different policies into one. This will allow them to pursue future business objectives using a clean slate, legally.
This would also allow Google to put all of your products under one roof. If you are using Gmail, Docs and YouTube, you will now have one user name and password for all of them, and Google says it can thereby provide a more uniform user experience. It also makes it easier for Google to inform itself about your habits across all of these services, and to use its massive computing capabilities to discover marketing potential for additional Google advertising services and products.
One TOS to rule them all.
You can see the newest version here. Its language is simple and not cluttered with much legal jargon.
The important stuff: On the new TOS, click the Privacy Policy tab at the top of the page. There you can read exactly what information Google collects and what they do with it. I have read the TOS, both old and new, and I like the new one. But some people do not.
Skeptics worry that Google should not be in a position to know everything they are doing online. But the internet is already more public than you might think. No matter which browser you use, websites know what time you visited, your IP Address, what site you came from and what site you go to when you leave their site (although some of that may become less easily known soon, to most companies except Google). Websites also log all of the pages on their site that you visit, and how long you looked at each page.
Part of the reason for collecting visitor information is to provide security. One way to track an unauthorized intrusion is to capture visitors’ internet protocol (“IP”) addresses. But let’s be realistic; another huge reason to collect this information is to use it for marketing purposes.
Back to the skeptics: They realize many sites track this information, but are concerned that Google can collect the information for all sites. Sensitive to this criticism, Google spells out how you can opt out of most of the data collection services that they use. From your Google Dashboard you can set all of your Privacy Settings and control the amount of information that is collected and stored by Google. This will ensure that you are not sharing too much personal information. They will still collect basic information from your use.
Keep in mind that Google is an advertising company. They make the vast majority of their money selling ads. (Or as a marketing person might explain, their business is selling audiences to advertisers. The more they know about their audiences, the more they can charge for their ads.) All of the products and services Google provides to you for free, is a method of delivering the ads to you. If you have used Google to search for men’s shoes and then you went back a few days later and searched for camping equipment, you will also see ads for men’s shoes. They use what you search for, to determine what ads to serve you. Every time you search, you provide Google with more information about your interests, and Google can “sell” you to more advertisers. More and different ads show up alongside your searches, based on the collection of this data.
Google’s reach is not limited to search alone. For example, if you have an Android phone, you have the option to set it up using your Gmail account. This gives even more information to Google. Some users find the interconnectedness of it helpful (as I do, because it saves me time and effort). Others are wary. Where do you fall on that spectrum?
If you accept that advertising is part of the modern world, and if you’re not afraid of Google seeing where you go and what you do, then Google’s new TOS puts them in a position to offer you a lot of efficiency through coordinated products and services. If you have concerns, then you can limit them by managing your privacy settings or by using a browser and email service that is not part of Google. But note, every company has terms that give it special advantages, and Yahoo and Bing do pretty much the very same things that Google does, so choose wisely.
Our next post will cover setting up Google privacy options so that the data they collect is very generic and not personal.