Why do people in general ignore online privacy policies? Is it because of laziness, complicated texts, or is it because people are not aware of their function? If the privacy policies were around two pages and easy to understand I would call it laziness, but we all know that is not the case. I believe the major problem lies in the complexity in finding the terms that interests you as a user, and knowledge of how you can change your privacy settings.

I have specifically two sites where I feel a bit worried of giving away too much of my privacy, namely Google and Facebook. When it comes to Google I feel less aware of the privacy policies. Since I am a frequent user of Google’s products as for example Google translate and Google docs, and recently changed to Gmail, I should know more than I do.

In March this year Google introduced a new privacy policy that collect information from all of its services (gmail, youtube, google+ ec.), with the purpose of better tailor search queries based on the users interest. This has created a lot of discussion, especially towards the fact that the users don’t have a possibility of opting out. Meaning that if you don’t want Google to have a detailed description of you by combining information from all platforms, your only option is to stop using all of Google’s products. Google’s reason – it would be too difficult*. I am not an opponent to Google, I am very thankful for many of the services they are offering, I just use the company as an example. The thing that worries me is if information as e.g. Google possess comes in the wrong hands, because of money or illegal reasons. Bottom line is, for the websites you visit often, make an effort in reading the privacy policies so you know what you are signing up for. There are alternatives out there, yes, even for Google.

*http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/09/opinion/ghitis-google-privacy/index.html