Google Jumped the Shark - Requires Login to Use ANY Google Service

[mhansen]

Wow - what are they smoking in Mountainview? link [washingtonpost.com]

Google said Tuesday it will require users to allow the company to follow their activities across e-mail, search, YouTube and other services, a radical shift in strategy that is expected to invite greater scrutiny of its privacy and competitive practices.

The policy will take effect March 1 and will also impact Android mobile phone users, who are required to log in to Google accounts when they activate their phones.

I wonder if there is provision to allow people to return Android phones?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

At best this will cause massive bad publicity at worst it could be the star of a slippery slope for Google. I think this one may even capture the general public's attention.

Too far this time?

[ken_b]

This should be interesting.

Here's a link to the Google post [googleblog.blogspot.com...]

[the Washington Post link in the OP requires login]

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

This link to the WP article works (at least from the UK)

[washingtonpost.com...]

[watchtower101]

Can't opt out? People are going to bail out!

[Reno]

They are pursuing the exact policy that so many of us here have expected. Here is more info...

Google announces privacy changes across products; users can’t opt out

Google will soon know far more about who you are and what you do on the Web.

The Web giant announced Tuesday that it plans to follow the activities of users across nearly all of its ubiquitous sites, including YouTube, Gmail and its leading search engine.

Google has already been collecting some of this information. But for the first time, it is combining data across its Web sites to stitch together a fuller portrait of users.

Consumers won’t be able to opt out of the changes, which take effect March 1...

Read the...
Full Article [washingtonpost.com]

.......................................................

[tangor]

The question will be will gmail users opting in (to continue using the service)? How many are going to give up their established gmail accounts? I know many gmail users who do not use any other G products... and some with gmail that use bing for search. Will be interesting to see how this shakes out.

[Marshall]

Absolute power....

Marshall

[zeus]

why even bother to make a Privacy Policy, there is non. This will not be seen lightly in Europe thats for sure.

[topr8]

... imho, MOST people couldn't care less about privacy.

all this google stuff is a storm in a tea-cup.

we are mostly webmasters here and different to the average person when it comes to things like this, yet - how many here who moan about privacy are using google analytics and knowingly giving all their valuable data away to google! (just one example of many)

how many webmasters who moan about privacy surf with js turned on, how many don't clear cookies on a regular basis - there's privacy invasion going on everywhere but it's too much effort for most to do anything about it.

how about using those supermarket loyalty cards, or nectar cards (i'm in uk, i assume they have the equivalent in other countries) ... most people willingly use these and are giving away all kinds of information by doing so.

... the list goes on

the truth is the average person in the street does not care about privacy issues.

[driller41]

It's for our own benefit dont forget.

[nickreynolds]

... imho, MOST people couldn't care less about privacy.

Not entirely sure that's true. There's quite a lot of sensitivity to Facebook privacy and people are still worried about lack of security with online shopping/banking.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

And the general public are now becoming much more aware of this. They will be even more aware of it with the publicity this will generate.

Watch out for TV and magazine adverts appearing from companies offering alternative email addresses with no privacy issues and using this as their hook. ;)

[jecasc]

the truth is the average person in the street does not care about privacy issues.

They will care the moment when they want to pay with Google Checkout and are denied because they were searching for "debt management" or "ways out of debt" on Google Search recently.

Of course Google will tell them, that this is a service and Google only wants to help them on the first steps out of debt by denying the purchase of those overpriced gadgets they wanted to buy.

[zeus]

topr8 - thats just be cause they dont know a thing about Privacy policy and what companies are doing with there info. If you tell a person about what a company does with the info they will quickly chance there mind. What I dont like is that 1 company has so much info which can be MISUSED, thats what i dont like, think hackers, bad companies, criminals.....thats what makes me worried, no system is 100% safe.

[mhansen]

The part of this interesting to me, is about combining almost all privacy policies into one. Many of us have embedded web services that are Google products, and we wonder if they will no longer work properly, unless logged in.

- Embedded Youtube Videos
- Adsense
- Analytics
- Google Custom Search
- Adwords

Realistically, if taken as written, all of these services could just stall, requiring a user to login first. If the services of embedded content stop working properly, I guess we (as Webmasters) have the choice of encouraging users to login, or finding another provider.

We also need to realize this means MORE of our search referrer data is going to be gone if more people sign onto this and login to the services.

[Webwork]

Have a taste. First one's free.

Don't worry. You can stop any time.

I'll be around if you need . . want more.

Heroin. Crack. Data. Traffic.

[londrum]

to be honest, i was surprised that data wasn't being shared across the different companies already.

[randle]

Consumers won’t be able to opt out of the changes, which take effect March 1.

Google has always been big on the "well you can always opt out" of whatever data collecting activity they had going. Thats problematic enough; Joe surfer is ignorant of the activity in the first place, so "opting out" isn't really an above board approach.

Now, Joe surfer doesn't even have the option to opt out of this type of activity even if he is aware of it (which most aren't furthering the egregious nature of this)

If your going to track peoples activity, store and then use that information for monetary gain theres only one ethical approach;

Fully inform the person what will be collected and how and the person must "opt in" to be tracked and profiled.

For a company that prides itself on "organizing the worlds information", their pretty selective about how informed their users are about this type of activity.

[shallow]

For many reasons, including Panda, I've had it with Google. They've offered a bunch of free online goodies through the years and I've bitten hook, line and sinker. They have a lot of my correspondence (Gmail), photos (Picasa Web albums) and some documents (Google Docs). I opened a Google + account, though I rarely use it and am hoping I can close it.

I know there is no way of totally eliminating Google from your online life, but I'm going to close or stop using as many accounts as I can. Gmail is going to be a problem because I've been using it for years. I've set Bing as my default search engine.

I'd really like to be able to have a different user id and password when logging-in to AdSense.

[shallow]

"Option 3: Delete your Google account.You'll lose access to all Google services and existing data requiring a Google Account. If you use Gmail, your Gmail address can't be reused."

Oh well. There are two other options:

[support.google.com...]

[nickreynolds]

Someone needs to organise a "No Google" Day!

[Pfui]

Federal officials are also looking at whether Google is running afoul of antitrust rules by using its dominance in online searches to favor its other business lines. [washingtonpost.com...]
Ya think?

[engine]

It's up to Google what they do with their system, but this is a major change that makes me wonder how the privacy lobby will view this.

I suspect it will run and run well beyond the March 1 deadline.

[shallow]

Someone needs to organise a "No Google" Day!

Good idea. We can all log out for the day.

How about an 'Occupy Google, too?" Virtual or otherwise. :)

[Samizdata]

we are mostly webmasters here

Yet Google Webmaster Tools has not been mentioned.

(Omission now corrected).

...

[Panthro]

Maybe it's just me, but I assumed they already did this. I figured if you're logged into G, you're logged into G.

[HuskyPup]

I've deleted everything Google except my AdSense account and one tablet PC which will be finding a new home soon.

Apart from the AdSense factor there is a life without this behemoth and I'm seriously considering dumping AdSense too simply because I can afford to.

The new corporate Razrs have been cancelled and it looks like Blackberry may win the day, trying the new Nokia tomorrow.

[outland88]

Someone needs to organise a "No Google" Day!

Absolutely, but the problem is Google has so many in its hip pocket stealing your content for Adsense turn-out might be sketchy.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I guess we (as Webmasters) have the choice of encouraging users to login, or finding another provider.

Lots of opportunities being created for ETHICAL, enterprising companies.