From NPR: Google And Privacy: Is It Time To Give Up?

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Google says it is initiating the changes for the good of the user. Consumer advocates and privacy-protection groups don’t see it that way. They fear that Google is gathering too much personal information — without a person’s consent — and spreading it all over the place. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who is co-chairman of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, is quoted in The Boston Globe as saying: “The new Google privacy policy is: You have no privacy.”

So is Google good or not? Helpful or not? And what about Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Amazon and others who seem to be all up in his grill and clocking his every move? They roll out new timelines, new service agreements, new possibilities. Sometimes they shut down familiar formats and useful applications with nary an apology or explanation. They remind us who calls the shots.

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I’m not a huge fan of the new privacy policy.  I mean, we’re using free services that are provided by companies, so we should expect that the companies would want something in return.  And really, the things Google knows about me aren’t controversial, damning, or incriminating.  But I feel violated somehow.  Maybe I should start signing out of my Google accounts when I browse the web?  That’s what I do with Facebook.  And Amazon.  I just feel a little… used.

Wired.co.uk suggests that I might be over-thinking this — Google’s not selling my information to anybody, just using it to refine my ad experience.  I should be grateful that I’m not seeing the watered-down generic ads aimed at the masses, but tailor-fit, possibly even insightful bids for my dollar.  I hear what they’re saying but I feel like this is a “give a moose a muffin” type issue.  Phone companies, ISPs, social networks, and search engines are using personal information about their users to make money.   The data is cheap, descriptive, bountiful, and it literally pours itself into their databases.  And why shouldn’t they use it?  I don’t know.   I do know that if my local grocer had a store clerk follow me to the bookstore to see what I was reading, I would flip out.  In the end, all I have is a gut feeling that says I should be wary.  It seems like a compromise we have to make to use cool new tech, at least for the time being, until user anonymity becomes an attractive marketing strategy.