Late on Friday, Google announced changes to its Terms of Service that, when they go into effect November 11th, will allow the company to use anyone"s Google Account name and photo in ads, if they don"t change their Shared Endorsements settings. While that"s pretty easy to do, some people don"t like the fact that Google changed their service terms to allow this kind of behavior in the first place.
This weekend, CNet reported that some Google+ users had decided to change their profile picture to show an image of the company"s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. This was done as a sign of protest; if Google decides to use their profile in ads, the pictures will instead show an image of one of the company"s top leaders.
We did a quick search and we did indeed discover that a number of Google+ account holders had swapped out their own profile picture with that of Schmidt"s. However, it"s way too early to see if this Internet movement will gain steam. Even if it does, it may not convince Google to change their mind about their latest effort to turn pretty much anything into an ad.
Schmidt has already been the topic of discussion earlier this week when he tried to convince an audience at the Gartner Symposium ITXpo that Google"s Android OS was more secure than iOS. That remark generated amusement and laughter from the audience.
Source: CNet | Image via Google