What Google’s New Privacy Policy Really Means

There’s been a lot of talk about Google’s new privacy policy ever since the cloud service provider first announced the changes in January.  And with talk comes rumors, which usually aren’t true, and thus confusion.  So here’s what Google’s new privacy, which will go into place on March 1, really means.In a nutshell, Google is seeking to improve user experience across all of its services by making it more personalized and easier to work across multiple Google platforms at once.  To do this, Google has implemented a new privacy policy which puts the majority of its many services, such as Gmail, Google+, and YouTube, all together under one umbrella policy.Since your Gmail account will now be closer linked to your YouTube account which will be more connected to your Google+ account (you get the idea), Google will be able to put together a more complete picture of each individual user.  This means Google will have a better idea of where your interests lie, what you tend to look for on the web, and how you generally spend your time online.Why does all of this matter to Google?  By putting all of this information together, Google will be able to offer you an online experience that is more tailored to who you are and the things for which you are looking.  Basically, it means that Google is working to meet your needs faster and better.This all sounds well and good in the abstract, but it’s important to know exactly how these changes will affect your everyday online usage.  To start, as Google learns what topics you are interested in, what you usually search for, and what search results you tend to favor, it will be able to provide you with even better search results than it has in the past.  For example, if you were to simply type “friends” into the search box, Google will know whether you are looking for “Friends” the television show or results about friendship.  Additionally, Google may ultimately correct things like spelling errors in your search queries as it learns not only what you look for but also your online habits.

Another positive result of Google learning more about your online presence is the tailoring of advertisements to suit your preferences.  Google will take the information it has gathered about you and work to provide you with advertisements it thinks will actually interest and benefit you, rather than ones that are completely irrelevant.

Overall, the more Google services you use, and the more regularly you use them, the better picture Google will be able to form.  This means that people like Google Apps users, who tend to use Google’s services most often, will see the most improvement to their services.  The fact that the more platforms you use, the more benefits you’ll see is evident in another feature of Google’s privacy policy.  As the cloud service provider has announced, if you have a meeting scheduled in your Google Calendar and are using Google Maps while on route to the meeting, Google can put together your current location and the time it will take to get to your destination based on traffic conditions and, because Google also knows what time your meeting is, tell you if you are going to be late.

So how can you manage all of the data you put into Google services and view yourself the same way Google does?  The Google Dashboard will allow you to view your data and activity across all of the Google platforms you use, thus ensuring that you can maintain control of your account.  Similar tools, such as the Ads Preference Manager, will allow you to have even more control over the types of results Google provides for you.

Another major contributor to the confusion surrounding Google’s new privacy policy is that users will never be able to do anything online without Google knowing about it once the changes take place.  But this is pure myth.  Do you want to have an extremely private conversation over chat in Gmail?  Choose the off the record option and Google won’t keep track of the information.  Interested in browsing the web more privately?  Use the incognito window through the Google Chrome web browser and what you do won’t be logged with the rest of your information.

Although the changes that will occur under Google’s new privacy policy may seem confusing at first, when you take the time to learn what they are and what exactly they mean to you as a user, it is simple to see the new policy will actually improve your day-to-day online experience.