Google has just released a lengthy blog post to announce that it has finally put its privacy policy on its homepage. The search giant has been repeatedly questioned over the last few months over its lack of a readily available privacy policy, which until now has been buried in the “About Google” section of the site. The explanation has always been vague (and ridiculous), with Google repeatedly appealing to its desire to keep the home page as pristine as possible.
Google hasn’t said why it finally gave in, but it’s likely that it has been facing pressure from the government to make the privacy policy more available - a post by Saul Hansell points out that the lack of a visible policy may have actually been illegal under California law.
The announcement was accompanied by a lighthearted description of Google’s “homepage weight” - the number of words visible on the page at one time. Apparently the magic number is 28 words, and the company was forced to drop a word from its copyright disclaimer in order to make room for the new link.
It’s an interesting little story, but the tone of it is sort of strange. Privacy is a big deal at Google, so why the levity? We’ve had some recent concerns over where Google is getting its website usage data from, nevermind the fact that it may soon hand over all YouTube user data by court order. It would be nice if they were a little more forthcoming, even if it’s at the cost of a whimsical story.
Despite these concerns, we should give Google some credit for a hosting a pretty comprehensive privacy portal (even if it was difficult to find before). Here’s their captivating introduction to cookies:
whats the point? Like anyone reads them
I can not locate a privacy policy on the mobile version of Google’s site from my iPhone. So they still have work to do.
i care more about that hottie
Oh trust me.. the post is funny to a handful of people!
Valid point. If the Google homepage surpasses 30 words, I’m planning on switching to another search engine. Too many words and I break out in hives.
Google- thanks for looking out for us.
She has a future in on-line teaching.Good delivery, good even tone. Great name - Oh Yeah!
Scumbags. What a bunch of f’ing crooks
I’m sure this has no connection to the Viacom decision.
There’s nothing as clean as Google. What else is there to switch to?
Mmmm cookies.
Hmmm….does this mean that if they get caught with a few more privacy concerns that we’ll see future explanations a la nakednews.com
Nice and funny. So why did they keep all of these logs of YouTube accesses, those that are being handed over these days ? It doesn’t matter what their privacy policy says if higher powers can override it at will. Google: don’t keep the data, period.
C is for cookie… that’s good enough for me!
Jon
http://woodmarvels.com - Create Unique Memories!
I always wondered about the iPhone version of Google search, iGoogle including the Reader. If you look at the URL on your iPhone after you click on a search link and then click further it looks like you are still “sticking” to Google’s servers. Likewise when you read a blog on Google reader. You have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the post to go to the original post and free yourself from your transcoded session. Fair enough transcoding provides value if you don’t want to pinch all the time. But what’s the difference between that and having all your browsing habits monitored by an Alexa plugin. At least with Alexa you know they are watching you. Now you know that Google Mobile is watching and recording your browsing habits, too. Here is the part of Google’s privacy policy that’s interesting:
“# If you use Google to transcode, or format, non-mobile pages to display properly on your device, we need to send your request to Google’s servers for formatting. That means that we will record these requests, which are generally for material beyond Google’s sites.”
IMHO, recording these requests is something only “evil” companies want to do.
Nice, thanks!
Oh ye.
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@Unbelievable: Amazon used its logs to improve their site (recommendations), I assume search data is used to make search results better for users (personalized search maybe?)
I can see WHY they want to keep logs, and I can definitely see a very good argument for anonymizing the data (if they arent already)
Who needs privacy anyway? I would rather everyone know all about me. When everyone’s information is freely available the information stealers will get bored and go steal something else.
BadWolf: Cool, then put your money where your mouth is. I’ll take your SSN, DOB, bank account number, mother’s maiden name, list of health problems, name of insurer, and a full array of the divergent opinions you hold on topics on which the rest of humanity seems to have agreed.
Google is just starting to take privacy seriously, and so do a lot of people… these technologies are still relatively new and it’s not everyone and every country who think the same about them. The gray areas have to go away to avoid mess and fiascos like the recent Viacom fiasco.
What a joke. Just went to their privacy statement and couldn’t find one word about how Googlevil uses my searches and personal info to send me tailored advertising.
What a joke.
To search the world for information you Google it. In return, when the world comes looking for your personal information you get Googled. Reminds me of a cricketing term for a surprise spin bowl called the ‘Googly’.
So who is brave enough to post their home IP here ?
Who reads that stuff!!
Well a lot has already being question as google is emerging as another library of alexandria. Surely they are gathering information about 60-70% people on earth, their day to day activity on web.
I blogged this interesting video on google’s ideaology here….may be some of you might be interested.
http://abhinavsingh.com/blog/2.....lexandria/
Another one is a bug which I recently discovered in gmail integrated chat. So after debacle of orkut apps , this is second flop from google which I have seen in recent times.
http://abhinavsingh.com/blog/2.....ated-chat/
cool i love cookies