Internet giant Google has announced it will track, share and use all user data across all its platforms following a major privacy policy update - and there is no way for users to "opt out".

Search giant Google announced on Tuesday it is combining most of its 70 privacy documents covering its different products into a single shared privacy policy.

On the face of it, this simplification seems a step in the right direction.

However, studying Google's official blog post on the privacy policy update in more detail soon reveals the true magnitude and user impact of these fundamental privacy policy changes.

From 1 March, all user data collected on Google's many platforms will be collated and used by Google across all of its products, and there is no "opt out" option for users.

Google's blog post reads: "[...] we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products [...]"

Grand-scale data mining operation
For the user, this means that everything and anything done on Gmail, Google search, YouTube, Google Maps, Google+ or any Google's other services will be tracked and centrally analysed to build an accurate profile of the user's interests. A profile which will aid the Internet giant to display more relevant ads to the user and further increase profits.

Google can also store cookies on people's computers to see which web sites they visit or use its popular Google Maps program to estimate their location.

Even mobile phones based on Google's popular Android operating system will be including in the grand-scale data mining operation.
Consumer advocates have responded to Google's announcement with great concern as users don't expect their data to be shared between seemingly unrelated websites such as Gmail and YouTube.

The Washington Post quoted Common Sense Media chief executive James Steyer as saying: "Google's new privacy announcement is frustrating and a little frightening,"

"Even if the company believes that tracking users across all platforms improves their services, consumers should still have the option to opt out — especially the kids and teens who are avid users of YouTube, Gmail and Google Search."

Technology analysts have interpreted Google's radical privacy policy changes as the search engine giant violating users' privacy and abandoning its founding philosophy "Do no evil".

That philosophy, said Mat Honan, writing on the technology news site Gizmodo, had "been largely interpreted as meaning that Google will always put its users first, an interpretation that Google has cultivated and encouraged. Google has built a very lucrative company on the reputation of user respect."

"And now it's pulling the stakes out, collapsing it. It gives you a few weeks to pull your data out, using its data-liberation service, but if you want to use Google services, you have to agree to these rules," Honan wrote.

Journalist Raakhee Mirchandani wrote in a Boston Herald blog that "Google’s aggressive changes to its privacy policy could quickly turn everyone’s favourite company into Public Enemy No. 1."

The true extend and impact of Google's changes to its privacy policy are yet to be realised by consumers.

"There is no way a user can comprehend the implication of Google collecting across platforms for information about your health, political opinions and financial concerns," Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocacy group, was quoted by the Washington Post as saying.

The latest move by the Internet giant comes after Google recently disappointed Wall Street investors for the first time in several quarters, and as the company is facing antitrust investigations of its business practices both in the U.S. and Europe.

These investigations also probe whether Google may have manipulated search rankings in favour of its own services. Obscure search rankings which hinder growth of innovative smaller and medium-sized enterprises are the subject of a campaign for greater search engine transparency, "Have I been penalized..?", which is spearheaded by One News Page.