Google Presents Letter To Congress Addressing Questions Of Its New Privacy Policy

You remember how Google recently announced it would consolidate its privacy policies into one policy, right? In case you’ve forgotten, this change will reflect all the information you search for, all the emails that are sent in Gmail, all the videos you watch or subscribe to in YouTube, places you’ve looked up on Google Maps or even posts and discussions on Google+– and will be sent and stored in one place. All of this is done to enhance users’ overall Google experience, but keep in mind users cannot opt-out of this new privacy policy. Once you have a Google account and use any of its services, you’re pretty much stuck with what you get. That’s why plenty of folks are coming up in arms and expressing their concerns regarding this imminent change.

That’s why Google took some time and addressed concerns to Congress in a detailed letter. Anyone who is concerned about their privacy will definitely want to set aside some time and check out this letter. This is a long letter, so here are some quick bullet points you might want to focus on:

We’re still keeping your private information private — we’re not changing the visibility of any information you have stored with Google.We’re still allowing you to do searches, watch videos on YouTube, get driving directions on Google Maps, and perform other tasks without signing into a Google Account.We’re still offering you choice and control through privacy tools like Google Dashboard and Ads Preferences Manager that help you understand and manage your data.We still won’t sell your personal information to advertisers.We’re still offering data liberation if you’d prefer to close your Google Account and take your data elsewhere.

Kudos to Google for taking immediate action in addressing its users’ concerns. Be sure to make some free time and check out the video below in addition to checking out Google’s letter in its entirety at the link below.

  

source: Droid Life
via: Google

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Categorized as Android Applications, Android Lawsuits, Android News, Google News

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Mobile Privacy Bill Introduced In The House, Would Regulate Carrier IQ-Like Tracking Software

The Carrier IQ controversy has prompted numerous concerns and fears over citizens’ privacy rights. That’s why Congress has gone ahead and taken precautionary steps to ensure this type of situation never happens again by drafted a bill called The Mobile Device Privacy Act in the House of Representatives. The bill’s sponsor, Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) put it best:

“Consumers have the right to know and say no to the presence of software on their mobile devices that can collect and transmit their personal and sensitive information”.

So what are the details of the bill you ask? Basically if the bill were to be achieved and passed, it would require companies to disclose tracking software and detail what information it collects. Furthermore, it would require consumer consent for any data collection or transmission; while companies that want to transmit data to third parties would need to gain approval from the FTC and FCC in order to do so. Read on to see more of the nitty gritty details and what the next steps are before the bill becomes law.

Take a look at what the bill would require:

Monitoring software must be disclosed when a person buys a mobile phone, and also after the sale if any party decides to install monitoring software after the fact.App makers that include monitoring software must also disclose it.All disclosures must say whether the monitoring software has been installed, and detail the type of information collected, where it’s going, and how it will be used.Consumers must give their consent before monitoring or data transfer takes place.Those who receive data must be able to secure it.Data sharing agreements have to be filed with the FTC and FCC.

The Verge reports that the bill has a way’s to go before it becomes a law. As anyone familiar with the lawmaking process would tell you, a bill’s proposal in the House still has to go through further approval— in this case the bill would then have to be presented to the Senate. However, grabbing support from the Senate side shouldn’t be too much of a problem, considering there’s at least one prominent member who is notably outspoken against Carrier IQ. Senator Al Franken told The Verge that ”the default for collecting any kind of personal data should be opt-in consent” and that “we have a fundamental right to know what information is being collected about us and who it is shared with”. We’re sure there are many individuals who share your sentiment Senator Franken.

We’ve seen established Mobile Carriers take immediate action to ensure consumers’ privacy, now we’re seeing the law play its part too. Stay tuned with Talk Android for further updates on the landmark controversy.

source: The Verge
via: Venture Beat

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Categorized as Android Lawsuits, Android News

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What Google’s unified Privacy Policy means for Android

This week Google announced an upcoming change to their privacy policies that aims to provide a more intuitive user experience across all their products. Starting March 1, Google plans to consolidate more than 60 privacy documents into a single new Privacy Policy.

Now when signed in, Google will treat you as a single user across all their products, combining information you provided from one service with the others. As Danny Sullivan of Marketing Land puts it, “It’s similar to how you sign-up for Facebook, rather than individual products within Facebook.”

In short, Google will know more about who you are and what you do online. So far, it appears people are reacting to the changes in two ways. Either people are creeped out by all the information Google is collecting or they are embracing the universal data policies that will enable more human-centric interactions with their connected devices.

A preview document of the new Privacy Policy provides some insight on what information is collected and how it will be used. I encourage you to go read the entire document, but here are a few snippets we think are related to Android.

Device information: We may collect device-specific information (such as your hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information including phone number). Google may associate your device identifiers or phone number with your Google Account.Log information: Telephony log information like your phone number, calling-party number, forwarding numbers, time and date of calls, duration of calls, SMS routing information and types of calls.Location information: When you use a location-enabled Google service, we may collect and process information about your actual location, like GPS signals sent by a mobile device. We may also use various technologies to determine location, such as sensor data from your device that may, for example, provide information on nearby Wi-Fi access points and cell towers.Local storage: We may collect and store information (including personal information) locally on your device using mechanisms such as browser web storage (including HTML 5) and application data caches.

I’ll agree that the level of data that Google has access to is a little alarming, but consider some of the proposed benefits that we could experience. Google lists several examples on their site and in a new promotion video that explains the changes.

There’s so much more that Google can do to help you by sharing more of your information with … well, you. We can make search better—figuring out what you really mean when you type in Apple, Jaguar or Pink. We can provide more relevant ads too. For example, it’s January, but maybe you’re not a gym person, so fitness ads aren’t that useful to you. We can 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. Or ensure that our spelling suggestions, even for your friends’ names, are accurate because you’ve typed them before.Alma WhittenDirector of Privacy, Google

The way I see it, this information sharing could be laying the groundwork for Google’s upcoming voice and artificial intelligence application, codenamed Majel. Not everyone is ready for this Star Trek future where they talk to their personal computer that knows everything about them, but it’s clearly the path Google is on.

Some have proclaimed that this shift marks The End of “Don’t Be Evil”, but I’ll leave that up to you for debate. There are definitely signs that Google is in bed with our government, so I see how individual liberty could be constrained in the event of some national emergency that requires pervasive surveillance. (Call me crazy but fictional stories like Nineteen Eighty-Four and Terminator’s Skynet come to mind.)

For the time being, I don’t see any reason to distrust Google, and I, for one, welcome this universal data sharing strategy. Just remember you can always access your Google Accounts Dashboard to see which personal information is being stored and you can edit your Ads Preferences to alter which ads Google serves you.

What do you think of Google’s new Privacy Policy? Do you think the changes are good for innovation or is Google becoming evil?

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