Privacy boss finds loopholes in Google policy
Fears personal data may be used in unwanted ways
OTTAWA – Canada’s privacy commissioner has expressed concerns with Google’s new privacy policy, asking the Internet giant to clearly explain how it plans to use personal information it collects from users.
In a letter to the company sent Thursday, but released publicly Friday, Jennifer Stoddart said Google’s new policy appears to have loopholes where users may unwillingly have their personal information used in ways that make them uncomfortable.
Stoddart said she wants Google to clearly explain how it plans to ensure that users can keep information from different accounts separated when the new policy takes effect March 1.
The current policy didn’t connect a user’s general search history, for instance, with a Youtube search when they weren’t signed in.
Now, that may change, Stoddart said.
“As we understand it, the policy changes do not mean that Google is collecting more information about its users than it currently does,”stoddart wrote.
“They do, however, mean that you are going to be using the information in new ways — ways that may make some users uncomfortable.”
Google’s new privacy policy, which it has been advertising on its site for weeks, consolidates more than 70 policies into one general policy.
The company also will keep a few product-specific policies, such as Google Wallet, which allows Android users to pay for products in stores simply by tapping their phone. In the letter sent this week, coming on the heels of meeting between Stoddart and Google representatives, Stoddart raises concerns that the new privacy policy doesn’t say how long information will be kept on file.
She writes that Google needs to “more clearly explain its data retention and disposal policies.”
Stoddart also cited concerns with the new policy as it relates to Android mobile phone users, saying that the new privacy policy forces users to log in to Google services, even if they don’t wish to do so.
“Although Google has stated that some of its services can be used without signing into an account, this is not very practical if a user is accessing those services via an Android phone,” Stoddart wrote.
“In effect, it appears that there is very little choice for Android users should they not wish Google to have the ability to link all of the services they use. This is of particular concern, given the potential ease with which accounts could be linked together on the basis of the device identifier information that Google collects.”
Stoddart has been an outspoken critic of Google’s privacy policies, calling out the company on more than one occasion for how it uses personal information in its services.