INTEL SOURCE LINK: Smartmoney.com
By Quentin Fottrell
New research finds people fork over $5,000 worth of personal information a year to Google in exchange for access to its “free services” such as Gmail and search. While many view this as a fair trade, privacy experts say the Internet giant’s latest plan to pool user data from its various sites make it less so.
The new privacy policy – which Google contends will allow it to better target ads — goes into effect on March 1. In a press release, the company said it may combine the information users submit under their email accounts with information from other Google services or third parties. What people do and share on the social networking site Google+, Gmail and YouTube will be combined to create a more three-dimensional picture of consumers’ likes and dislikes, according to reports. Google did not return calls seeking comment.
Experts say that information is more valuable than people may think. Michael Fertik, CEO and founder of Reputation.com, one of a slew of new paid – and free — services to help consumers keep their web use anonymous, says personal information can be worth between $50 and $5,000 per person per year to advertisers and market researchers – depending on how much they spend and how useful the information is to third parties. Fertik says this explains why online breaches are so lucrative and on the rise. Others say the data may be worth billions of dollars to social networking sites and online marketing agencies. “Their entire market cap is related to how much data is being collected and used,” says Jules Polonetsky, director of the Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based think-tank.
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