Google Privacy Settings – How the Changes Will Affect You
Google has always done their best to keep their services up to date with the latest and provide the safest searching solutions to their users. Renowned for their offerings which include search engine, Gmail, YouTube and Google+, they have announced that come the 1st of March, they will be combining all of their 60 some privacy policies.
This means is that if you’re signed into your Google account, you’ll be treated as a single user across all of Google’s products and services.
Safety first 
We first got a taste of their efforts to provide a more secure online experience in January 2010 when they introduced SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), an encrypted search service which redirected users automatically to https://www.google.co.uk (notice the extra “s”) when signed into their Google Accounts.
This secure connection between Google account users and their internet services meant that when logged into their account, it would be impossible for third parties to collect information about their searches on the web.
Sharing is caring?
Some third parties (such as ourselves at Zelst) rely on the information gathered from search queries to provide our clients with a more effective and targeted online marketing campaign. And whilst these alterations are said to not have an effect on CPC (Cost Per Click), they will have an impact on the way we and other fellow “web gurus” view Google Analytics data.
This is because keywords used by those logged into their Google account whilst browsing the web will now appear as “(not provided)”, making for a less accurate account of which specific keywords were used in the searches.
Keeping things simple
The new privacy policy will also combine the information of account users as a single entity across all their services in order to provide a better Google experience. Therefore, if you have a Gmail account and are a registered Google+ user, the personal information you entered when registering for each service will be combined.
Furthermore, if for example you’ve been signed into your Google account and searched the web for cars, don’t be surprised if you get recommendation for car related videos the next time you log into YouTube as a result of the linking of user data.
Like it or leave it
Although Google have always been open about the fact that they collect information about the services and websites that users visit, they have assured that any of the privacy tools users have already opted in or out for will not be affected by the change.
And despite the recent uproar of those against the policy changes, which will be compulsory to all account holders, they have remained positive about their decision and believe that if anything, security and user experience will be improved.
