Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) New Privacy Policy: Are You Being Violated?

Chicago, IL 3/1/12 (StreetBeat) -- If you find yourself on Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Youtube, Gmail or any of the internet giant's various properties today, they won't look or feel any different than they did yesterday, but behind the scenes there's a change impacting all 2 billion users.

The company just implemented a new privacy policy streamlining dozens of separate policies under one gigantic umbrella, despite calls from critics and regulators to hold off.

From Google's standpoint, the new policies are part of an evolutionary process needed to keep pace with growth and changes in the internet business, particularly among mobile users. However, from a consumer watchdog point of view, the new rules are merely an attempt to define how Google collects, stores, and sells your information, rather than reducing it. In the words of one observer, the privacy policy changes simply allow Google to keep "even more detailed digital dossiers."

"You don't go to a spa and then complain afterwards that people saw you naked in the sauna. Of course they're going to violate your privacy," my co-host Jeff Macke says in the attached video.

Interestingly (or perhaps fittingly) Google rival Facebook held its first-ever marketing conference yesterday in New York City. The social networking king will likely tweak its own user experience so its paltry $4 billion revenue base better reflects its massive 800 million person user base.

Basically, they're looking to serve up more advertisements on your page and in your newsfeed. While the extent is unknown, the outcome is clear: Facebook is looking to make more money off its users. Bigger, flashier, more targeted, and more mobile ads are coming our way.

In the words of one executive from the soon-to-be-publicly traded company, Facebook is going to be a "big, fat story-telling canvas" for advertisers.

It remains to be seen whether this new, more intrusive Facebook experience will cause users to leave, but observers say at least for now, there's really nowhere else to go.

Even so, Macke's believes Google has a public relations problem whereas Facebook must contend with a business model problem. "To me the question is, as a Google shareholder, you weren't doing that already?," he questions. "And if not, why not?"

Are Google and/or Facebook violating your privacy? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

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