New York Like it or not, your relationship with Google is becoming a lot more intimate.
The company recently expanded its ability to combine data from its various services to create a highly detailed profile on you.
Google says it's doing that to simplify its privacy policy and improve your experience on sites such as Gmail, Picasa, Google Plus and YouTube. But there's a business reason, too. Google gets a chance to use the data it collects to tailor ads that align more precisely with your interests, and those personalised ads are among the most lucrative for the company.
Many privacy groups complain that Google is forcing you to accept these changes. The European Union is investigating whether the new approach violates its data-protection rules.
Before getting too worked up, it's important to understand what's happening.
Product pitches
Google has long monitored its users in order to target advertisements. If you've been reading a lot of news articles on golf, don't be surprised to see golf products pitched in graphical, display ads as you move across the Web. Google identifies you not by name, but by a string of characters attached to your Web browser. Google also promises not to target ads based on sensitive attributes such as sexual orientation, religion and serious health conditions.
Google also keeps logs of your searches and other activities, partly as feedback to improve services, the company says. Those logs don't have your name, but rather a numeric internet address associated with your computer and the same browser-based characters used for ads. That internet address also gives Google your approximate location, so a search may return local plumbers and not those 800km away.
Things change when you sign into a Google account — the kind you have for Gmail. When you do that, Google will have personal attributes such as your name, address and a list of friends. The new policy gives Google more ability to combine such data from email, YouTube, search and other services, beyond the limited rights it had in the past.
