Things, specifically privacy things, appear to be moving fast at Google. Of course, we all know that appearances can be deceptive. I recently reported that Google had confirmed it was bringing controls to allow users to set time limits on how long it could save location, web and app activity data. Then my colleague Kate O’Flaherty explained how Google is changing how cookies are handled in Chrome, empowering users with improved control over activity tracking. Now the search giant appears to have turned the user privacy knob up to 11 by announcing that it will, in effect, stop tracking users of both Google Maps and Search. Given that Google is all about the data, by which I mean your data, what’s the catch?
Announcing the intent to make it easier for users to control their data, Eric Miraglia who is director of product management in the privacy and data protection office at Google, described how the Google Account not only paints a picture of your shared and saved information but also the ability to erase information from that data portrait. As well as bringing “one-tap” access to your Google Account from more products this month, including Search, Maps, YouTube, Chrome, the Assistant and News, Miraglia confirmed that Google was also introducing Incognito mode to both Maps and Search. “When you turn on Incognito mode in Maps,” Miraglia explains, “your activity, like the places you search or get directions to, won’t be saved to your Google Account.” This follows the addition of Incognito mode searching for YouTube last year and will also prevent cookies and site data from being saved.
While users have been able to do this by using Google Maps from within a Chrome Incognito tab, by manually deleting data or simply by being logged out of their Google Account when doing so, the new announcement is really one of making it easier for the average user to “opt out” as it were. As such this is an important move forward for Google in terms of user privacy controls, but does that actually mean that your movements are private? As far as Google is concerned, then yes it should. From the broader perspective then no as there’s still your internet service provider, mobile network, third-party sites or apps that you browse to that must be considered in the overall tracking picture.
As for Google itself, it is in the business of analyzing your data in order to serve you content including advertising and that’s not going to change any time soon. The big catch, then, is that Incognito will not be the default mode, and experience tends to suggest the vast majority of users don’t tend to stray from app defaults. So while the nod towards privacy is most welcome, especially given the other nods mentioned previously, I’m not convinced that the Google leopard is in full spot-changing mode and neither should you be. Think of this as just being another, very small, tweak to the “taking back some modicum of control over your privacy” continuum.
At the time of writing there was no indication of when the new Incognito mode options will appear other than “soon.”
Article source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2019/05/11/google-confirms-it-will-stop-tracking-users-whats-the-catch/