VOA Special English Technology Report 1: Google Faces Heat Over New Privacy Policy

Privacy activists are concerned about Google's new privacy policy as of March first. The company says one main policy is replacing more than sixty separate policies for different products. Activists say the changes will make it easier to track the activities of users across Google's many products -- from Gmail to YouTube. Marc Rotenberg heads the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. He says Google's aim is to create a single unified profile of its users. We believe that not only is that a threat to privacy, we actually believe it is illegal, because last year Google entered into an agreement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in which they said they would not engage in that kind of data sharing without the explicit permission of their users. Google says its new policy will make it simpler for users to share information across services like Google Search, Gmail and Google Calendar. And it says the new policy will help personalize each user's experience. Over time,