What if I have account but am not signed in?: Google can only integrate your information if you are signed in. For example, if you’re signed in to your Gmail account on one tab, and then decide to look up a clip on YouTube on another tab without signing out of your e-mail, the data will be integrated. If you sign out or look up a YouTube clip on a different browser, the data won’t be integrated.
I have an Android phone. How does this affect me?: Because you have to sign in to your Google account to do anything except for browse the Web and make phone calls, Google will be able to track practically anything you do on your phone using Google services.
What about if I have an iPhone/Blackberry/Windows 8 phone?: Google’s new privacy policy doesn’t get into the specifics of what it can collect on different platforms and whether this changes if you download a Google app or if you access Gmail, for instance, on your phone’s browser or competitor’s app. But it does say that if you sign into Google services, Google will be able to collect information about your device and usage.
Can you be more specific about the type of information Google will be able to collect on mobile devices?
The company’s new privacy policy allows the company to collect a great deal of data: Your device hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers and mobile network information. Google says it may associate your device identifiers or phone number with your Google Account. Details of how you use the service, such as search queries. Telephony log information like time and date of calls, duration of calls. IP addresses. Cookies that may “uniquely identify your browser or your Google Account.” Google was already collecting this information under its old privacy policy but is making it more explicit that it can marry the mobile data with other information so they can find out things like the location you were in when you ran a particular search query.
What do privacy advocates have to say about the new policy?: Privacy advocates are already saying that Google’s new policy will be a surprise to many users.
“There is no way anyone expected this,” Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the privacy advocacy group Center for Digital Democracy, told The Washington Post’s Cecilia Kang. “There is no way a user can comprehend the implication of Google collecting across platforms for information about your health, political opinions and financial concerns.”
Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass), the co-chair of the Congressional Privacy Caucus told The Post that he had issues with Google’s decision to mandate the sharing between services. “It is imperative that users will be able to decide whether they want their information shared across the spectrum of Google’s offerings.”
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Google tracks consumers across products, users can’t opt out
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