Google tries to demystify privacy
controls with new approach
SAN
FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google is making its privacy controls easier to find and
understand in an attempt to make the more than 1 billion users of its digital
services more comfortable about the personal information that they give the
Internet's most powerful company.
The simpler
approach debuting Monday features a redesigned "My Account" hub where
all of Google's key privacy controls can be found. Accountholders can also
undergo a check-up that will break down which of the company's various services
are gathering information about them. A new site at http://privacy.google.com
will also address a variety of issues in a question-and-answer format.
The new
system represents Google's tacit admission that its previous setup confused and
frustrated people. Until now, the privacy controls were spread across far-flung
sections of Google's website with few explanations of the pros and cons of
adjusting each setting.
"It
wasn't well organized and we didn't give a lot of context," concedes
Guemmy Kim, Google's product manager of account controls and settings. "We
are trying to take the mystery out of privacy."
Most people
want to get a better grip on their privacy as the confluence of widely used
search engines, smartphones and online social networks makes it easier to track
where they are, what they're doing and what they're thinking.
A recently
released survey by the Pew Research Center found 93 percent of adults in the
U.S. consider being in control of their personal information to be important.
Yet only 9 percent of the respondents felt they had a lot of control over their
information and 50 percent said they had little or no control over their data.
Since its
1998 inception, Google has built a stable of popular products that funnel
valuable - and sensitive - information about the people using them. Besides its
dominant search engine, the Mountain View, California, company also runs the
YouTube video site, the Chrome browser, Gmail, Google Maps and the Android
operating system for mobile devices.
Google
analyzes people's interests and habits to show them ads about products most
likely to appeal to them. Ads generate most of Google's revenue, which totaled
$66 billion last year.
Google's
privacy controls enable people to limit the kinds of ads they see.
Accountholders also can prevent Google from logging their activities on
personal computers and mobile devices, though the company will warn that
imposing those restrictions might result in less-relevant and slower results
from search requests.
Facebook
similarly uses what it gleans from people's activity on its social network to
sell ads. Google's new privacy check-up tool is similar to a feature that
Facebook unveiled nearly nine months ago.
The reliance
of personal data to target ads has subjected both Google and Facebook to harsh
criticism by privacy watchdogs and some competitors. Without identifying
specific companies, Apple CEO Tim Cook last year posted an open letter warning
that "when an online service is free, you're not the customer. You're the
product."
Since 2010,
Google has been reprimanded by regulators in the U.S. and Europe for a variety
of privacy breaches, including exposing email contacts, secretly tracking users
of Apple's Safari browser and snooping on Wi-Fi networks.
"We
have had some privacy missteps, but we are always trying to learn from that and
to serve our users better," Kim says.
Source | Financial Express | 2 June 2015
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Khaitan
& Co.
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