Google's new privacy policy

Apparently Google is changing their privacy policy to be able to better target ads across their various web site 'properties', including Gmail, YouTube, Maps and their search engine. Probably also their blogs, of which this is one. I haven't looked at the details, so my information is from this article from the Washington Post. The reason I decided to write a short blog post about it is because of this quote:

“There is no way anyone expected this,” said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocacy group. “There is no way a user can comprehend the implication of Google collecting across platforms for information about your health, political opinions and financial concerns.”

Really? I actually thought they were already doing this, which is one reason why I've started using a different search engine, and in Google's favor at least they're not including their wallet in the sharing. I have to question the discernment of someone who can honestly say 'there is no way anyone expected this'. I fully expected it about 2 years ago.

In addition, you don't have to stay logged in to YouTube all the time if you don't want. Or you can use a different browser for logging in to Google Maps. I realize that many people log in on their mobile devices, so a different browser may not be an option. Share your reactions and ideas in the comments if you'd like.