Google stirs up privacy hornet's nest

From InfoWorld: Google has whipped up a privacy brouhaha with a blog post announcing that the company is rewriting its privacy policy, consolidating user information across its services.

What has the blogosphere and some users in an uproar is that Google isn't offering users an opt-out option. If you don't want your information from Gmail, YouTube and Google searches combined into one personal data store that can paint a detailed picture of you, the only option is to stop using Google's services.

There doesn't seem to be a way to keep using Google's highly popular products and services and not have the company combine all your personal data. And that bothers some users.

However, Eitan Bencuya, a Google spokesman, noted that the company has been combining users' information from different services for a while. For instance, if a user begins to type a name into the Calendar app, the name will auto-complete with contacts from the user's Gmail account.

With the upcoming changes, the company is expanding that effort and combining users' information across all products and services, he said.

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