Google has announced that it will be updating its privacy policy and terms of service across all of its products and services on March 1. The company will remove about 60 different privacy policies and will substitute it for a single policy which should be more simple to read and understand by users. With this, Google aims to create a simple, easy, and more user-friendly experience.

Google sent the following e-mail out to all users to explain the changes:

Dear Google User,

We’re getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that’s a lot shorter and easier to read. Our new policy covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.

We believe this stuff matters, so please take a few minutes to read our updated Privacy Policy and Terms of Service at http://www.google.com/policies. These changes will take effect on March 1, 2012.

What will happen with the new privacy policy?

When Google announced the planned changes to its privacy settings, many users were confused as to how the new policy was going to affect their usage of Google tools and services.

The new privacy policy includes a number of changes, but here are the most important points:

• The re-vamped policy affects Google search, Gmail, Google Apps, and all other properties associated with Google. It replaces the more than 60 existing product-specific privacy documents in place as a result of Google’s development of new tools and platforms. Only the new policy will be in effect as of March 1.
• No distinctions will be made between your conduct on Youtube, Google+, Gmail, or other associated products as of March 1. This merits the idea of “one user.”
• With your Google account, you will get similar results across the services, based on accumulative data of your search patterns and favorite topics. Likewise, you will be presented with a similar advertisement on the different platforms, based on your presence across the services. For example, you search for recipes on Google’s search engine for half an hour. As a result, the next time you open your Youtube account, you receive recommendations for videos about cooking shows, celebrity chefs, and food. Also, your advertisement is pre-selected to offer you a choice of restaurants or cooking classes.
• Google will collect whatever information you make available through your account along with your navigation data, search history, and location. Unique applications are also recorded.
• Whether or not you are eager to make information on your whereabouts public, Google Maps and its camera system are making location tracking an easy solution. In accordance with the new privacy policy, all public information will be used by Google Maps.

To use Google services as of March 1, you must accept the new privacy policy. If you do not want to accept new privacy policy, the only thing you can do is close your account.

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Consumer Watchdog recently praised European data protection authorities for asking Google to delay implementation of its new privacy and data policies and said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission should determine whether the new policies violate the terms of Google’s consent agreement with the commission.

Under the new policies, announced by Google last week, the Internet giant would combine data from different services that it had kept separate in the past.

“Google is making a huge change that weakens your privacy protection,” said John M. Simpson, Director of Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project. “I am glad the Europeans have taken the lead on this, but now it’s imperative that the FTC determine if Google has violated its consent agreement. I think they have. Google is using your data in a new way and not making the change on an opt-in basis as the consent agreement requires.”

Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the Article 29 Working Party, an association of the data commissioners from the European Union, wrote Google CEO Larry Page seeking the delay in implementing the policies, due to go into effect March 1.

“Given the wide range of services you offer, and popularity of these services, changes in your privacy policy may affect many citizens in most or all of the EU member states,” wrote Kohnstamm. “We wish to check the possible consequences for the protection of the personal data of these citizens in a coordinated procedure.”

He said the French data protection authority, the CNIL, would take the lead in the analysis. Google’s consent agreement with the FTC came as a result of the “Buzz” debacle in which the Internet giant displayed users’ email addresses without their consent as it tried to launch a social network. Under the terms of the agreement, Google can’t use data it has collected in new ways unless users opt in to the new use.

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