Google Defends Privacy Policy as Congress Demands Answers

As members of Congress called for closer scrutiny of Google's new privacy policy, the search giant on Thursday afternoon defended the update in a blog post intended to provide "the real story."

Earlier this week, Google unveiled a new, unified privacy policy that consolidated the company's 70 or so privacy policies across its products down to one ? which will pull data from users logged in to Google.

Privacy hawks in Congress, however, were concerned with some of the details. Alma Whitten, Google's director of privacy, policy and engineering, for example, mentioned that Google could "provide reminders that you're going to be late for a meeting based on your location, your calendar and an understanding of what the traffic is like that day."

The prompted concern Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn), who were worried about users' control over their information.

Today, Markey teamed up with several House colleagues to pen a letter to Google chief Larry Page asking for more information about how Google will collect data under this new policy, which goes into effect March 1.

Markey also said he will ask the Federal Trade Commission whether the changes violate Google's recent settlement with the agency, which bans Google from future privacy misrepresentations.

The uproar over the changes prompted Google to respond to the "misconceptions" about its policy.

"You still have choice and control," Betsy Masiello, Google policy manager, wrote in the blog post. "You don't need to log in to use many of our services, including Search, Maps and YouTube. If you are logged in, you can still edit or turn off your Search history, switch Gmail chat to 'off the record,' control the way Google tailors ads to your interests, use Incognito mode on Chrome, or use any of the other privacy tools we offer."

Maseillo also denied that Google will be collecting any more data about you than it did in the past. "Our new policy simply makes it clear that we use data to refine and improve your experience on Google ? whichever products or services you use. This is something we have already been doing for a long time," she said.

Ultimately Google is "making things simpler and we're trying to be upfront about it. Period," Masiello concluded.

For more, see Google's Privacy Policy: A Wakeup Call, But That's It.

For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.

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Source: http://feeds.ziffdavis.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/breakingnews/~3/p9pkRJ3svrU/0,2817,2399435,00.asp

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