Can Consumers Opt-Out Of Google’s New Privacy Policy?

Beginning March 1st Google will begin to monitor user’s habits, preferences, and proclivities much more closely and in a systematic fashion. The company reports that they will do this to help refine their products and deliver more effective advertising. This has a lot of users in an uproar! Now the policies have caught the attention of several U.S. lawmakers.

In a letter to Google CEO Larry Page, eight United States lawmakers convey their sentiments and pose questions regarding Google’s upcoming privacy policy changes. The following is some of what was said in that letter:

“Google’s announcement raises questions about whether consumers can opt out of the new data sharing system either globally or on a product-by-product basis.”

“We believe that consumers should have the ability to opt out of data collection when they are not comfortable with a company’s terms of service and that the ability to exercise that choice should be simple and straightforward.”

“While Google suggests that the purpose of this shift in policy is to make the consumer experience simpler, we want to make sure it does not make protecting consumer privacy more complicated.”

Further questions revolved around users who decided to delete their accounts with Google and if their information would be retained or deleted. There are about twenty questions in total about the new Google privacy policies.

The lawmakers have requested a response from Google and would like it to be before February 16th.

There are 26 Comments. Add Yours.

JFrancis
January 26, 2012 at 7:59 pm

This is a terrible thing. Beware of big brother. This is not what google says it is.
CBrenner
January 26, 2012 at 8:46 pm

Not a big fan of being followed by anyone or anything for any reason. Privacy is a right, leave it that way or I leave at any cost.
Troy
January 26, 2012 at 9:08 pm

Consider my opt out request or else I will opt out from all your services.
Robert L. Zylstra
January 26, 2012 at 9:48 pm

If it aint broke, don’t fix it ! Kappish ? Sell me out and i’ll go elsewhere.
wendy
January 26, 2012 at 11:14 pm

I will change my services as well.
lee
January 26, 2012 at 11:20 pm

This is unsettling. The thing about the advances in technology and the world wide web is that even though they seem to improve and enrich our daily lives in many ways, it is violations of privacy and trust like this that put us all in danger of slowly losing our rights.
marcus culvert
January 26, 2012 at 11:38 pm

please remove me from your list
Kain
January 27, 2012 at 3:49 am

What I do to avoid Google spying on me is use one browser (Chrome) for google products I cant do without (Adwords, Adsense, Webmaster tools).

I then use Firefox with cookies from Google blocked for normal web browsing.

For other products such as Mail and analytics I use other providers.

It’s a pity I have to go to this much trouble to stop being spyed on.
Sharon Hecke
January 27, 2012 at 5:05 am

Don’t like Google anymore!!!! They turned Bad…I will use Goodsearch.com from now on..
Nick Stamoulis
January 27, 2012 at 10:09 am

Online privacy is a huge issue. People would be surprised how much information companies like Google and Facebook have on them. They can get away with it though because they know that it’s hard if not impossible to not use their products today.
osama alkurdi
January 28, 2012 at 11:45 am

ithink it’s hardly for a beigginer like me to deal with the new coming changes, by the way, adense, and chorme not avialbe in my country, and others, you this fact, e.x. adense not allowed by….your princ.
osama alkurdi
January 28, 2012 at 11:48 am

ithink it’s hardly for a beigginer like me to deal with the new coming changes, by the way, adense, and chorme not avialbe in my country, and others, you know this fact, e.x. adense not allowed by….your princ.
jestness
January 28, 2012 at 1:22 pm

Sigh… back to apple products…I really liked the Droid too.
snarky5
January 28, 2012 at 2:01 pm

Most everyone knows that ISPs have been cooperating with Google for years. Many ISPs have a back-door lookup so Google can locate your home address simply based on your IP address. Does the rest of this really matter? Google knows where you live if within the US anyway. Protect yourselves, run Firefox with no-script and see just how many sites use the google-analytics service to gather your browsing habits. They’ve already been gathering browsing data for nearly a decade so why is it that people are just now noticing? If you are really paranoid, use a proxy.
snarky5
January 28, 2012 at 2:02 pm

Most everyone knows that ISPs have been cooperating with Google for years. Many ISPs have a back-door lookup so Google can locate your home address simply based on your IP address. Does the rest of this really matter? Google knows where you live if within the US anyway. Protect yourselves, run Firefox with no-script and see just how many sites use the google-analytics service to gather your browsing habits (even this web-page does). They’ve already been gathering browsing data for nearly a decade so why is it that people are just now noticing? If you are really paranoid, use a proxy.
Kelvin
January 28, 2012 at 2:43 pm

Well then – get out. Bing is worse. As is Facebook and every other service out there. It’s how they make money. Turn your computer off, throw your cell phone away.
harlicon
January 28, 2012 at 4:49 pm

I think you should avoid this! Just because people may be complacent doesn’t make what you are proposing is right!
Eddy Ln
January 28, 2012 at 5:44 pm

Always happens! Each time that a company grows huge, loses respect to people.
I really hate being spy in any of my acts. This is a free county and we cannot afford to lose any kind of freedom. Politicians should do something for our votes. Not just collect money, but to support us as citizens and promote laws against this matter.
Freedom is lost Privacy is null
January 28, 2012 at 7:12 pm

As a test, I “unplugged” for a week.
No Inet, No cellphone
A bit of a hassle, at times. A bit boring, at first. Well worth it, to say the least.
Sometimes I forget what it was like to not be ‘connected’. And how much I could accomplish without the internet.
Google: Shove your new policies.
FB/Twit/etc: Cram yours as well.
They push us in the name of profit.. they forget we can simply… *unplugs*
Don
January 28, 2012 at 8:29 pm

This is a terrible mistake. My life is MY business, not Google’s. So 1984 !

Give us Opt-out, or lose millions.
Brenda Barnes
January 28, 2012 at 9:47 pm

So why isn’t there an answer here? Yes or no, not a response to the lawmakers is requested before some date. If I can’t opt out of this, I’m gone, so give me an answer.
Longtime Google Fan
January 28, 2012 at 11:02 pm

I don’t have a Facebook account, and I block their stuff by several methods, both at home and most particularly in the office. Using Facebook is not allowed in either environment, period.

Please don’t go all Facebook on us, or I’ll be forced to pull the plug on Google as well. Contingencies are already planned and would only need to be implemented.

Change is good. You may have it your way, as we will most certainly have it ours
legitimate ways to make money online
January 29, 2012 at 12:50 am

Great!~
But I love Google
February 15, 2012 at 4:44 pm

I’m not sure what to do or what search engine to use but I always thought that what I do on the Net is my buisness only as long as it’s not illegal
Example only,if you frequent adult sites will you get in trouble for it?
Al Giaquinto
February 29, 2012 at 11:24 pm

I don’t want my google queries to be made public to advertisers. I do
have junkmail filter in place which is about 90% effective. It seems if Google sends my history of queries to advertisers, I’ll be swamped with more junkmail.
Andy Robinson
March 15, 2012 at 8:21 am

A round associated with applause for your post post.Really thank you! Would like more.