Microsoft rolls out newspaper ads to warn users against Google’s new data policy

by Swati on February 2nd, 2012

Microsoft is warning users against rival Google’s new data policy. The technology giant slammed Google with full-page news paper ads, stating that the recent policy changes by Google would allow the search giant to merge all the data it collects on user activity across services such as YouTube and Gmail, and help advertisers better target the customers.

The attack ads appeared in several papers including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and New York Times. “Every data point Google collects and connects to you increases how valuable you are to an advertiser,” Microsoft stated in the ad.

Responding to Microsoft’s allegations, Google policy manager Betsy Masiello published a blog post, adding that the Microsoft ad is full of myths and users must not believe it.

“A number of myths are being spread about Google’s approach to privacy. We just wanted to give you the facts,” Masiello writes.

In response to Microsoft’s accusations that Google sells users’ private information to advertisers, the search giant writes, “Google does not sell, trade or rent personally identifiable user information. Advertisers can run ads on Google that are matched to search keywords, or use our services to show ads based on anonymous data, such as your location or the websites you’ve visited.”

Google further clarifies that the company has not changed its privacy controls in any way. Users can edit and delete their search history; edit and delete their YouTube viewing history; use many of the Google services signed in or out; use Google Dashboard and our Ads Preferences Manager to see what data has been collected; and use data liberation efforts to remove any information they want to from  the services.

Google launched a comon privacy policy and terms of service for all of its products, last month. The new policy allows user information from Google products to be treated as a single set of data. So, if users are signed in, Google may combine information they have provided for one service with information from other services, and treat the user as a single entity across all its products.

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