> When you sign up for a Google account you give Google your name, date-of-birth (DOB), location and mobile phone number. This is some of your most private and personal details
> Information you give us. For example, many of our services require you to sign up for a Google Account. When you do, we’ll ask for personal information, like your name, email address, telephone number or credit card to store with your account
They include that.
> Google records your browing habits and activity against your account
Also clearly explained in the Chrome privacy policy:
> If you sign in to Chrome browser, Chrome OS or an Android device that includes Chrome as a pre-installed application with your Google Account, this will enable the synchronisation feature. Google will store certain information, such as history, bookmarked URLs as well as an image and a sample of text from the bookmarked page, passwords and other settings, on Google's servers in association with your Google Account
> - how long they keep your activity data before it is erased. Is it 6 months? 12 months? Forever?
I agree this would be nice to have more details on but they do detail some of the complexities involved and refer you to specific services pages for more information.
> whether they disassociate your identity from your browsing behaviour or web activity when they look at it
This appears to be really part of your next question:
> related to the above: who sees your data inside Google? ... This is too vague in my opinion
Can you give me an example of a way this could be made less vague in an acceptable fashion? I'm struggling to think of a way they could give me relevant information.
> Let me put it another way: if I asked you for your name, DOB, mobile number and location and then recorded your online activity against that information, wouldn't you expect me to tell you who sees your data, whether that data is anonymised and how long I keep that data about you?
Personally I'd make the decision ahead of time. I do appreciate your point, but only a portion of your post is valid as they are quite clear on a couple of the points.
There's a large difference (imo) between 'misleading' and 'not thorough enough'.
> Information you give us. For example, many of our services require you to sign up for a Google Account. When you do, we’ll ask for personal information, like your name, email address, telephone number or credit card to store with your account
They include that.
> Google records your browing habits and activity against your account
Also clearly explained in the Chrome privacy policy:
> If you sign in to Chrome browser, Chrome OS or an Android device that includes Chrome as a pre-installed application with your Google Account, this will enable the synchronisation feature. Google will store certain information, such as history, bookmarked URLs as well as an image and a sample of text from the bookmarked page, passwords and other settings, on Google's servers in association with your Google Account
> - how long they keep your activity data before it is erased. Is it 6 months? 12 months? Forever?
I agree this would be nice to have more details on but they do detail some of the complexities involved and refer you to specific services pages for more information.
> whether they disassociate your identity from your browsing behaviour or web activity when they look at it
This appears to be really part of your next question:
> related to the above: who sees your data inside Google? ... This is too vague in my opinion
Can you give me an example of a way this could be made less vague in an acceptable fashion? I'm struggling to think of a way they could give me relevant information.
> Let me put it another way: if I asked you for your name, DOB, mobile number and location and then recorded your online activity against that information, wouldn't you expect me to tell you who sees your data, whether that data is anonymised and how long I keep that data about you?
Personally I'd make the decision ahead of time. I do appreciate your point, but only a portion of your post is valid as they are quite clear on a couple of the points.
There's a large difference (imo) between 'misleading' and 'not thorough enough'.