How safe is your information online? Google's founder Sergey Brin said that the company would prioritize privacy when thinking of various kinds of advertising products, but is it really the case?
Google had changed the way of tracking its users from June 2016. Their accounts from Youtube, Gmail Drive and other web apps have been merged into one with their browsing records on the internet. But ProPublica stated that Google crossed the line when Google had merged DoubleClick, an advertising network that Google bought in 2007 which contains massive records of web-browsing data and information of the users from their accounts on Gmail, Youtube and others.
According to The Guardian, Double click tracks the users using web cookies by their IP address in order for them to send targeted ads while Google handles the user's real names, numbers, emails, and other data.
For those users who had just created a new account, it is automatic that one account could be used for the other Google services. The result of this merge is that Google is now capable of altering or customizing DoubleClick ads based on the keywords that the users use in their Gmail account. Google has also the capability of creating a user based on the data on his or her account including her name, email, number and searches the user has on the web.
The Guardian also stated that a number of complaints have already been instituted saying that combining those data together would be an invasion of privacy. A spokesperson from Google, Andrea Faville, stated that their decision to merge the accounts is for the revolution of the smartphone, where it is easier now for the users to regulate ad preferences in different devices.
For the users who are not comfortable to be tracked this way could change their settings by going to their account page in Google. Just look for the activity controls section and uncheck the box which states "Include Chrome browsing history and activity from websites and apps that use Google services".
