A new report from ProPublica shines some light on a quiet revision made by Google to its privacy policy in June 2016. The revision allows Google users to share their browser activity across devices.
Back in 2007, Google bought an online ads company called DoubleClick. At that time, the search giant assured its users that they prioritize privacy in the development of their ads network. Overall the company has kept its promise by dividing their database of user browser activity from the personal information gathered from Gmail and other apps.
However, in June 2016, Google decided to adopt a subtle change in their privacy policy. It started asking account holders if they are willing to share more data with Google. The request was slightly vague but consisted in a request for permission to couple the browser activity of users with their personal information in order develop better targeting ads.
If you received the request so opt-in for the service and didn’t know what it implied, but accepted nonetheless, rest assured that your privacy hasn’t been affected very much if you don’t mind ads. The new feature will only allow Google to know who you are when you sign up on different devices. This allows your specific ads to follow you as well instead of seeing only general, mostly useless advertisements.
More specifically, the newly redefined privacy policy allows Doubleclick ads to follow users from to site to site and even create an ads profile based on the information they entered in Gmail or other apps. Google can then build a profile, linking names and email info to a user’s browsing habits and search attempts in order to provide fully personalized ads.
When given the chance to comment, Google has stated the new policy is only an attempt to adjust to the smartphone era. However, all new accounts will automatically have this level of data-sharing already enabled. Fortunately, both new and old accounts have the ability to opt-out of the service if they don’t like it.
In times where other companies like WhatsApp and Facebook do not let users have a say in what they can do with their personal information, Google still offers people a choice, even if the company wasn’t completely transparent when the feature was implemented.
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