Google's new privacy policy

Thursday, February 02, 2012

There's been discontented rumblings about Google's privacy policy for ages, so it's good to see a new, simpler, more straightforward policy released last week. 

What's been the problem? It's all about targeting. Imagine how big the internet it. It's vast. Absolutely huge. Search engines need to figure out which sites come top on the first page of the search results, and which belong lower down in the results pages. As t'internet grows, it becomes more difficult to 'decide' because the market is so crowded. So they've been bringing targeting into play, tailoring the search results to your 'behaviour'. 

Which sounds OK... or does it? When you think about it, maybe not. Targeting involves working out what you like and giving you more of it. Which is fine except you end up only seeing the stuff you like, a sort of abbreviated internet based on your preferences and search behaviour. At the end of the day it means you never see stuff you might dislike... but which could be fascinating. 

Targeting in this way restricts what you see when you search. And the more rebellious amongst us don't want to be cosseted in this way. We want to see the internet in all its horrid glory, not an edited version decided upon by Google.  

Google might be amazingly good at targeting content to your habits and preferences, likes and dislikes. But bear in mind that it's only as good as its algorithms, and algorithms are nowhere near clever enough to suss out the complexities, vagaries, eccentricities and subtleties of human behaviour. So its good to know that their new privacy rules make it much easier to switch off the targeting side of things. 

You can turn off personalised search in a few clicks, opening up your search experience again so you see more of the real world, without interference. If you have a Google account, you can reject personalised search via the Dashboard. 

Google also uses cookies to figure out your preferences, present 'relevant' adverts and track user trends. Luckily you can re-set your browser to refuse cookies or let you know when one's been sent. You can also view and manage your advert preferences via their Ads Preferences Manager and opt out of their Doubleclick advertising cookie. 

Last but not least, when you stay signed out of your Google account instead of remaining signed in all day, your searches aren't as heavily personalised.  

Although it's new and shiny, Google's updated privacy policy is still a bit of a work up and there's a lot of information to trawl through. Thankfully it's in reasonably plain English, which helps. But it'd be better still if Google simply added a 'yes' or 'no' button to their home page, so we could opt out of all personalisation with one click. Maybe one day!