Google Fires Back at Microsoft Over Privacy Claims

Microsoft is running a big-money ad campaign in major daily newspapers slamming Google over its recent privacy changes, charging the company makes it "easier for Google to connect the dots between everything you search, send, say, or stream while using one of their services... Every data point they collect and connect to you increases how valuable you are to an advertiser."

In the company's Public Policy Blog, Google Policy Manager Betsy Masiello claims those charges and others are "myths." She says, among other things, that "Google does not sell, trade or rent personally identifiable user information." And then she confronts head-on many of Microsoft's charges. In response to Microsoft's charge that Google's new privacy policy makes it harder for users to control private information, she says:

Our privacy controls have not changed. Period. Our users can: edit and delete their search history; edit and delete their YouTube viewing history; use many of our services signed in or out; use Google Dashboard and our Ads Preferences Manager to see what data we collect and manage the way it is used; and take advantage of our data liberation efforts if they want to remove information from our services.

Among other claims that Google says Microsoft made, Google says that it has not made changes in order to make data more valuable to advertisers. And then it goes on to say that its privacy policies are superior to Microsoft's: