I spy with my big Google

So the day has come: Google have caved into EU pressure to simplify their privacy statements. They made them 60 times simpler by merging their 60 top service policies together.

The EU got what they wanted. So why now am I reading articles about Google being blasted by the EU? Well the truth is, it’s just the French complaining the changes are unconstitutional. No doubt this will snowball into a free-for-all, but I'm not buying it.

The EU wanted simple legal fluff – well, they got it 60 times more simple. What are they moaning about? Firstly merging these into one policy means that when you sign up to a Google account, it’ll be the last time you’ll have to read a Terms of Service. Who honestly is going to read 60 of those in depth?

Also consider that now Google can use data in one service to help another service. Using Google Maps, Google Analytics can pinpoint exactly where you are and can tailor site statistics to your locality, while Google+ can rank events nearby higher than ones miles away.

While this was all technically possible in the past, the legality of passing data from one to another means even more Terms of Service to go through. What we effectively have now is one super service, a conglomerate of synchronised services. Yes it means more tracking of user behaviour and a step closer to the truth of the ‘Big Brother theory’, but if you don't want to use Google, there’s always Bing...

And so serves my point that we would rather give up our so-called privacy to get the best services.

Consider that if people wanted to spy on you in the 1970s, they’d track you down, go through your rubbish, and bribe the milkman for the insider info. Today, the barriers to conduct such illegal activities have been lowered.

The problem here isn’t the system, but the people who abuse it. If you’re really concerned about it, then consider carrying out your own form of monitoring to spy on the spies.

All in all, I commend the move and think it’s going to make life easier in the long-run.