Google Defends Privacy Policy Changes to the Congress

Internet search engine giant Google has sent a 13-page letter to eight members of the House of Representatives to defend its privacy policy consolidation, after the Congress members expressed their concerns about the change.

Pablo Chavez, Google's director of public policy, also wrote in a blog post to clear up confusion for the change, saying it's changing our privacy policies, not our privacy controls.

The company will combine over 60 separate privacy policies into a single policy and similarly unifying multiple terms of service documents. The new policies will take effect on March 1. Because of the changes, Google users can get a simpler, more intuitive experience across all the Google services.

Moreover, the updates will allow the users to combine personal information across multiple products and services.

However, the change has elicited concern from government officials, partly because Google is under scrutiny. Currently, regulators in the U.S. and Europe are investigating whether the company is conducting its search business in an anti-competitive manner.

Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) issued a statement last week, questioning how much control Google users have over their personal information. And he also insisted that the users must be able to decide whether they want their information shared across Google services.

So the search engine giant has sent the letter to the officials, assuring the updates won't change the protection for the users' privacy. On the contrary, the changes will provide a better experience for users. Meanwhile, the letter also confirmed the users must accept the forthcoming change.

If people continue to use Google services after March 1, they'll be doing so under the updated privacy policy, the letter read. The use of a primary privacy policy that covers many products and enables the sharing of data between them is an industry standard approach adopted by companies such as Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and Apple.

However, the letter indicated that other Google services, such as Google Search and YouTube, can be used without signing in to a Google Account.

All in all, Google asserted that users' privacy will be still protected and the intent of the changes is to improve user experience.