As Part One of this story discussed, Google is bent on monetizing users through keeping a careful watch on every Web page users access and every file users open on local machines, a strategy that has begun to raise red flags among privacy advocates.
It is in sharing users' private information that one of the greatest potentials for loss of privacy can occur. The Google privacy statement indicates that the company does not rent or sell information. But it declares that sharing information is definitely an option under specified limited circumstances with the users' consent.
Users give their consent in most cases when they click the "I agree" option when signing up for a Google service. And what are those specific sharing conditions? Google shares collected data with third-party companies to process Google's specific instructions. It also shares user account information with all of its member services, according to the policy statement, to provide users "a seamless experience." Under unspecified conditions, Google shares account information with other people or nonaffiliated companies.
News source: NewsFactor
