Google announced new privacy settings

Seeking to blunt a sharp backlash to recent privacy policy changes, Google has offered to share "the real story" about a system that compiles information about users based on their activity on all of Google's sites and products. This week, Google announced new privacy settings. The lawmakers also noted that because of Google's global reach, the change "potentially touches billions of people worldwide."

In a post on the company's public policy blog, Google's Betsy Masiello wrote that there have been misconceptions about the changes. "Some have praised us for making our privacy policy easier to understand. _ Users don't have to be logged in to use many of Google's products, including search and YouTube. _ When logged in, users can edit or turn off their search histories, switch Gmail chat to "off the record," use "incognito mode" on the Google Chrome browser or employ other of Google's privacy tools. Quite simply, Web users don't have to use all of Google's products.

She noted that Google won't be collecting any more data about users than it was before. Following a flurry of criticism over its privacy policy revamp, Google is attempting to clear up misconceptions about its actions.--Users still have control over what information Google sees; Google is not collecting any more data about users than it has in the past; and users can use as much or as little as they want of Google, Google Policy Manager Betsy Masiello declares in a company blog on Thursday. For services that require logins, a number of tools and options are available to reduce the data being collected by Google.

Google isn't collecting more data from its users under the new policy, Masiello maintains. "Period." Not everyone buys Google's "simpler" line. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) has called on U.S. Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the policy changes violate Google's privacy agreement made with the FTC earlier this year. Google was also initially rapped by an independent watchdog of the federal cloud, SafeGov.org, for creating privacy risks for government workers with the new policies. Google quickly responded that the new policies do not apply to government workers using Google Apps.

By consolidating information about its users and refining target audiences for a product, Google can charge more for its advertising, argue critics of the policy. U.S. lawmakers asked the Federal Trade Commission whether changes announced this week by Google to its privacy policy violate terms of a 20-year settlement the company reached with the agency last year. Google announced in a blog post Tuesday that it will create a uniform set of privacy guidelines for more than 60 products.