AITP in Action: Google's Privacy Policy Merger

All AITP members should be aware of Google's announcement that it will integrate users' information across Gmail, YouTube, and 58 other Google services beginning March 1, 2012. With this change, Google will take information about you when you use one of its services -- including Gmail, Picasa, YouTube, Google Docs, and Search -- and integrate the data so that Google can learn more about you and customize your user experience. In short, Google will collect and integrate almost anything that's already in one of the Google applications -- e.g., calendar appointments, location data, search preferences, contacts, personal habits based on Gmail chatter, device information, search queries, etc.

There are two excellent articles on Google's new privacy policy. Scientific American discusses "How Google's New Privacy Policy Could Affect You." Forbes focuses on "Google's New Privacy Policy: When Consumers' Worlds Collide, the Company Stands to Profit." AITP in Action recommends that every AITP member reads these articles, becomes familiar with how Google will merge and use information gleaned from how you use the Internet, and turns this awareness into protecting personal information.

AITP in Action is a series of educational, advocacy and community service programs sponsored by the Legislative & Regulatory Affairs Committee. For more information, contact Legislative@aitp.org.