PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
Google announced that it would be "simplifying and updating" the Internet giant’s privacy policies.
"Long, complicated and lawyerly—that’s what most people think about privacy policies, and for good reason," wrote Google associate general counsel Mike Yang in a post on the official Google Blog. "Even taking into account that they’re legal documents, most privacy policies are still too hard to understand."
Yang said the company would be making two types of changes. Firstly it would remove 12 of the product specific policies to address duplication. The move was deemed appropriate because Google shares information between products anyway such as contacts in Gmail, Calendar and Docs.
The main Google privacy policy document would also be simplified by cutting down redundant sections and re-writing legalease into plain English. The second change relates to being able to find and control privacy information such as adding content to the help sections.
Google also said that a privacy tools page will appear in the Google Privacy Center which would mean that the tools would all be in the same place. Yang said that the new policies would take effect on the 3rd of October and pointed to the FAQ for more information.
"Our updated privacy policies still might not be your top choice for beach reading (I am, after all, still a lawyer), but hopefully you’ll find the improvements to be a step in the right direction," Yang concluded.
