The new Google privacy policy is still rolling out to users all over the interwebs, bringing with it the sharing of user data from one Google product to the other. What you watched on Google-owned YouTube is shared with what you searched for on Google search which is factored into what stories you read on Google News. Does that bother you? Because it bothers members of congress who called Google execs in for a two-hour briefing about the new policy and what it means to users’ ability to control their information. Apparently it didn’t go very well. Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) said the Googlers were less forthcoming than she wished they had been.
From Hillicon Valley:
“By being more simple, [the privacy policy] is actually more complicated,” Bono Mack said.
She said the Google officials gave lawmakers a “thorough walkthrough of the technology that exists” to control privacy settings, but that she remains concerned about users’ ability to control the information they share with Google.
“The concern of Congress is how much active participation does a user have to do to protect their own privacy,” she said.
There are similar concerns in Europe where EU regulators want Google to put a freeze on rolling out the new policy. They say they want more time to go over it and really understand it.
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