US privacy organizations file a complaint about a change in Google terms and conditions

The American privacy organizations Consumer Watchdog and Privacy Rights Clearingshouse have filed a complaint against Google with the FTC. The complaint focuses on a change in the privacy conditions, which allows Google to combine certain data.

In the complaint, the organizations write that they do not agree with the change that Google made to its privacy conditions in June of this year. The search giant changed its terms to allow it to combine user data from its services, such as Maps and YouTube, with tracking information from the DoubleClick platform. It was acquired by Google in 2007 for a price of $3.1 billion. The change was noticed in October by the site ProPublica.

According to the organization, Google has misled its users with the change by not making sufficiently clear what the consequences are. In addition, Google would have done too little to draw the attention of users to the change. In the earlier version of its terms, Google promised to keep the two data collections separate. These were promises the company had made to address the government’s privacy concerns at the time of the acquisition, the organizations said.

They go on to say that “Google has committed a deep and pervasive appropriation of user data by combining the data” and that the company has deliberately done this in small increments. In a statement to The Washington Post, the search giant said the change is “one hundred percent optional” for users and that it has conducted extensive testing of choice and transparency. Google offers users the option to change their privacy settings through a support page.