Protecting your privacy under Google’s new ‘unified’ policy

WASHINGTON – Starting Thursday, users’ Google Web history will be shared by all of the company’s different products, including Gmail, Google Plus and YouTube.

“Google will be able to take all this information and create a profile on you,” says CBS News and CNET Technology analyst Larry Magid.

When the new policy takes effect Wednesday, information from most Google products will be treated as a single trove of data, which the company could use for targeted advertising.

If users don’t want their information to be stored for marketing purposes, Magid recommends not logging into Google when using their search function, using the private or incognito login or clearing your Google history after each use.

Magid says users should clear Web browsers by March 1.

WTOP’s John Aaron contributed to this story. Follow John and WTOP on Twitter.

(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

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