Google's new privacy policy is still scheduled to go into effect Thursday -- apparently despite concerns expressed by 36 state attorneys general and France on behalf of the European Union, its non-compliance with President Obama's proposed privacy 'Bill of Rights,' and a poll showing only one-in-eight Google users have bothered to read the new privacy statement.
Is Google deaf or what? People who pay attention are telling Google to go more slowly. But, lacking the sort of vocal opposition that halted the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA), Google is almost certain to plunge ahead. More pressure must be applied to stop the new policy.
Google should live up to its 'Don't Be Evil' mantra and delay its new privacy policy until regulators and the informed public are more comfortable with what the company wants to do and why. Google also needs to bring in outside privacy monitors who can, on a frequent and ongoing basis, credibly describe how the company uses consumer information.
We need time for a national debate on how companies use personal information. The Obama administration has gotten the ball rolling. Google should pause to give us all more time to reflect and regulate. Google gives the sense of rushing its new privacy statement to beat possible regulatory changes.
Google: The Internet Drug
Now, Google deserves credit for giving us fair notice. The same sort of credit that a drug dealer -- and Google has become the Internet's drug of choice -- gets for warning addicts of a pending price increase. What's the addict to do? Comply, just as Google's users are doing. What real choice to they have?
Privacy is what we give up in exchange for what Google gives us for 'free.' We pay for Google as surely as we pay for everything else, but unlike money, we have no way to really know the value of what Google collects from us.
Google is so ingrained into most of our lives that doing without it can be hard to imagine. And it's not clear the information Google already has access to isn't enough to track us forever, Google user or not.
Consumers have no way of knowing and understanding what information Google gathers and how it is used. The recent New York Times story about Target stores' use of customer information gives us a small peek into what is already routinely being done with customer data. Does Google know even more about us than Target? It's hard to imagine that not being the case.
Protecting Ourselves
If you want to change your privacy settings or get off the Google merry-go-around entirely, PC World offers excellent instructions of what you must do.
Today, I will be turning off my Gmail account, through which all my personal email now flows. I've changed my default search engine to Bing, because I (gulp) trust Microsoft far more than Google. Google Docs will not longer be something I use. And I will do my best to fog my identity to all other Google services. Not that I expect to be successful.
The lone Google service I really need and like is Google News, which I use as my home page. It has to stay, though I am open to alternatives. I will also continue using Google's news alerts for companies and topics I watch.
Google, of course, talking of how a single privacy policy will simplify its users lives and how merging all it knows about a user will empower exciting new services. I don't doubt that is true, since Google has to be getting the better end of the deal, I still wonder.
For a company founded on the concept of 'Don't Be Evil,' Google continues to stray and the crisis of confidence that surrounds Google will only continue grow. Delaying the privacy change would be a reassuring sign from the Googleplex.
