From Google page:
One policy, one Google experience

We’re getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that’s a lot shorter and easier to read. Our new policy covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.

This stuff matters, so please take a few minutes to read our updated Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service now. These changes will take effect on March 1, 2012.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/terms/
http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/preview/


Google announced Tuesday that it will integrate users’ information across Gmail, YouTube, search and 57 other Google services.

Google privacy director Alma Whitten, who explained the changes in a company blog post released in the afternoon, said the company will “treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.”

What is Google doing?:
In a nutshell, Google is taking information from almost all of your Google services — including Gmail, Picasa, YouTube and search — and integrating the data so that they can learn more about you. (Information from Google Books, Google Wallet and Google Chrome will not be integrated, partly for legal reasons.)

What kind of information are they collecting and integrating?:
Almost anything that’s already in the Google ecosystem: calendar appointments, location data, search preferences, contacts, personal habits based on Gmail chatter, device information and search queries, to name a few.

Can they do that?:
Not under the company’s current privacy policies, but Google is introducing a new, unified policy that you can’t opt-out of.

read more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/faq-googles-new-privacy-policy/2012/01/24/gIQArw8GOQ_story.html

One of hundreds of reasons I don't use any accounts linked to google.

Bing. :p

Taken from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/googles-new-privacy-policy-the-good-bad-scary/67893

//What Google knows about it's users
Small example of what Google knows about a Google devotees...

Gmail - All about their business and personal communications
Calendar - All appointments, what he/she is supposed to do everyday, where they are going, who they are meeting, etc
Latitude - Location of where they are
Phone (Android) - their real-time location
Maps - where you live (if you have saved an address for 'Home' in MyMaps)
Picasa - All your personal pictures, family, vacations, etc
Google+ - All your friends, if you have aggregated them in circles, they will know who you are the most closest with, who are your colleagues, etc
Youtube - What you enjoy watching, if you have uploaded personal videos under your profile, Google will definitely keep an eye for that
Docs - All your personal and business documents
Search - in general what you are searching for, if you are searching for something kinky, they will know

No company is better about privacy, be it Microsoft or Apple or Facebook. The scary part with Google is that people use them for virtually everything. And mining and profiling is what they do, as thats their core competency, to know more about you, to serve you targetted ads.

Its a choice after all. I for one, dont use any Google product and survive quite well.//

If those examples above are true, it kinda scary.

How Google's 'Chrome' Doesn't Protect Your Privacy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncerhCLi2o0&feature=related

you should look up some quotes by Eric Schmidt regarding privacy. that should be enough to make you wanna puke, and never use any account-based Google services. same with Facebook BTW.

i see nothing dangerous in using the Google search engine, though.

tell us more of what you do in your real life... sounds funny :)

there are ways around using the google search engine:
https://www.startpage.com/
http://www.scroogle.org/

Both of these use google search engine and yet they don't collect information around you. I've been trying to use google less and less.

now i'm using duckduckgo as an alternative. But probably too late. i have been using gmail linked with Youtube account since 2008.

that's why i said "no account-based services". i just use Google by itself. i have my emails elsewhere and i don't do social networking.

I use duckduck go as well sometimes, it is another nice little search engine.

Wolfram alpha is also another nice little tool for digging up information. It is not a traditional search engine, instead it digs for information and presents it to the user:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/

I have a gmail/youtube account as well, even if I know google is evil they are sadly really useful. It looks like I'll be looking for a new email provider and video website. That and I'm not impressed with youtube's new inconvenient look and Google just keeps getting creepierr.
I think we can all relate to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrontojPWEE

And Yahoo. It ain't perfect, but it doesn't leave me with that icky Google feeling, either.

Google of tomorrow is going to make Microsoft of yesteryear look like complete amateurs when it comes to attempting market domination.

They've been losing marketshare, though. Bing has been in increase for the last few years. Small numbers, but still, its usage has been increasing.

I use Cookie Monster to be logged out of search while I'm logged into gmail. I also use Adblock Plus to disable those incredibly annoying scripts on the search page. I'm really not sure what Google is trying to accomplish right now.

Eh, not too concerned since I only have a gmail account I created for my android phone. I barely go on youtube (compared to most people, who get all their terrible humour from it) and make sure to install adblock and no script. I give them as much information as I control. I'm VERY wary of programs and services who mine my data without asking, but realize that once I'm on the web accessing the biggest public portal known to man, that others will see and look at what I do. Be it my ISP, my fiancée, email service or google. Nothing has really changed with this announcement, don't like the services or won't use them after the update? Not a problem, this is the internet, use it as you wish.

The thing is though the alternatives are readily available be it bing, hotmail (which I use), yahoo, firefox. I must imagine handling 57 different privacy polices is inefficient and unnecessarily complex. Combining them into one, easy to read, simple policy is welcome. I read through every EULA and privacy policy and man, do they get tiring.


IF you depend heavily on google, then you could be concerned, but why on earth are you dependant on a single internet service that much?