Microsoft slams Google's new privacy policy

Google released a statement last week saying they were going to make one blanket privacy policy across all their services. This would mean users who are logged in to their Google account from any service will have integrated and personalized search results from across all of Google's services. Microsoft, who has been battling Google in the web space, right since Hotmail and now with Bing (among other services), has reacted to Google's privacy policy change, quite vociferously. They took out ads in newspapers in the United States on Wednesday stating their opinion on the matter. The point that Microsoft was trying to make with the ads is that Google is integrating all its policies into one major policy to do with selling user information to advertisers.

Microsoft's anti Google ad

"Every data point Google collects and connects to you increases how valuable you are to an advertiser," read the ad that Microsoft placed in USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and other newspapers. Google refuted the ads saying that none of their actual privacy practices have changed. While they do not deny that ads in services, like Gmail are based on words written in private emails, the words are read by automated scanners, which work in the same way as the scanners that are used to filter out spam. Google's director of public policy also issued a statement to lawmakers who had a problem with the new privacy policy, saying that the consolidation does not change the way Google collects information. Furthermore, Google services can still be used as is, if the user is not logged in to any of their Google accounts.

What do you think of Google's predicament? Is it just a PR nightmare or does Microsoft have a point? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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