Google recently made changes to its privacy policy that will take effect from the 1st of March. The reason behind this move is to provide us a more wholesome web experience, by using the data it collects about us from its various services, and there is no opt-out for most of the services. This is what has made certain people queasy. There was even an article in the ToI explaining how to divulge information selectively. One of the suggestions was to have different Google accounts to use each of its services. But why go to all this trouble?

Data regarding our search patterns, browsing patterns, emails, etc are already collected by Google. It will only combine what it collects across platforms to make our overall experience better. This is no privacy concern. Its been long since we lost our online privacy. Why do we need that privacy anyway? Isn't it better if Google remembers my chat with a friend regarding the impending release of a movie, and a couple of days later, advertises on each of our Google+ pages about the availability of tickets to that movie?

Its a brilliant move if you ask me. We can even sign into Google Chrome now. The entire browsing experience will be integrated if we do that. Isn't that great?

Eventually, all the websites will be highly personalized. And accessing a browser through an ID (like Chrome's option now) is the way it will be achieved. This will proliferate to the mobile space too. This way, every website we visit will be personalized as our browser will remember what we did on our last visit, how often we visit that website, etc. There will be a huge reduction in the visibility of ads about products and services that do not concern us, and we will only see ads about products that have been on our minds.

Online privacy is a myth. We might as well embrace the new Google privacy policy and make the most of it. What do you think?