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Google’s New Privacy Policy – What’s Wrong With It?
Google announced this week that they will be discarding 60 of their privacy policies and replacing them with one common privacy policy, covering multiple products and features of Google. While this might seem a good move for users, it’s not quite as innocent a move as it may seem.
Google has stated that they are doing this because they wish to create a “beautiful, simple and intuitive experience” for their users.
In effect, the new policy will make it possible to share information provided by a user on one Google product across all other Google products and features. This includes Gmail, Google Search, YouTube, Google Plus and others.
A major stumbling block of this new policy is the fact that users will not have the option to disagree with the policy if they wish to continue using any of these Google services.
Consumer Objections
Users have voiced their discontent via comments and votes on the YouTube video introducing the new, unified privacy policy. The major bone of contention for users seems to be that information from any one Google service will now be accessible to a host of other services.
Regular consumers are not blind to the fact that Google makes its money from advertising. They also accept that in order to advertise on all of its services, Google does need to be able to pull information from one service and use it elsewhere. What they dislike is the idea that Google is mixing the concept of privacy in a closed system such as GMail with that on an open network such as Google+ or YouTube.
Official Investigations Triggered
Not surprisingly, the announcement has not gone down too well with certain groups. Gary Davis, the Data Protection Commissioner in Dublin, where Google’s European headquarters are based, has said that their office would be “further assessing the implications of the changes now that they are launched to users”. He also said that “Google has a responsibility to ensure that any such changes are made abundantly clear to users”.
Greg Jones from the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office said, “Failure to inform users about changes may not only lead to a loss of trust in the company, but could also mean that they are failing to comply” with U.K. law.
Exceptions to this new policy will be Google Books, Google Chrome and Google Wallet. These sites will continue to retain their own privacy policy.This exception is due to legal reasons.
The new policy will come into effect from the 1st of March 2012.
Content meets link building in 2012
In 2011, SEO had a strong content focus, and it’s not looking like 2012 is going to be any different. Google has gone strong and hard on changes to the algorithm to improve content quality in listed results. For any site owner serious about rising in the rankings, content must remain central – even when building links.
Even as recently as a year and a half ago, the best link building strategies involved contacting the owner of a target site and making some kind of arrangement. Although this can still be a good way to get quality links, there are now better, more organic ways. These centre on your content.
Why mix link building and content? Google’s changes should give you a clue. People are changing the way they interact on the net, and content is becoming central to all types of communication. Whether they’re on a social media network, sampling an online publication or shopping for new shoes, internet users are accessing information and sharing it like never before. These days, link building is as much about sharing as it is about making contacts.
Laying out plenty of quality content and publicising it via your social media marketing campaign is a method of link building that stays true to the principles of organic search engine optimization. It creates links that please the search engines. Handily, it puts your resources to multiple use as well.
In 2012, work your link building plans in with your content. It’s the smart way to get ahead.
SEO Blog, Search Engine Optimization Blog : SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk
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Feed Your Blog`s Readers Well
Inspiration strikes in strange ways; in this case, I reached the end of Neil Patel’s excellent article covering 13 questions you should ask yourself while writing a blog post. In his discussion of the last question, he compared a blog post to a restaurant meal. Will your reader complain about your blog post because you’ve served them skimpy fare? Are you feeding people content so they are full when they leave your site…or are they hungry, looking for more? Patel asked. If they are still hungry, your readers probably won’t come back. So if your readers are devouring your blog content, th…
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Con Artist Shares Inside Story of Google Pharmacy Ad Sting
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Measuring ROI: How to Collect Meaningful PPC Conversion Data
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7 Steps to Prepare For the Search Alliance in the UK
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Google Public Alerts: Innovative System Provides the Public with Emergency
Yesterday, Google launched its new Public Alerts page, which provides emergency information and warnings related to floods, tornadoes, winter storms, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. The information for this innovative project is provided by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Weather Service, and the US Geological Survey (USGS). A user that [...]
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Google+ Drops Age Restriction, Now Accepts All Teenagers
Google today dropped the age requirement from 18 to 13 for teenagers who want to join Google+, bringing Google+ in line with Facebook’s age policy. Bradley Horowitz, Google VP, product management, also announced new features for teen users.
