Integritet i Googles tjänster - En studie om Googles sekretesspolicy
On March 1, 2012, Google introduced its new privacy policy which is applicable to all Google services. This means that search history may be saved by Google indefinitely and may also be associated with the specific account during the first 18 months. We assume that few people read this policy and we have hypotheses that a deeper knowledge of the contents of the privacy policy affects how users perceive Google as a company and/or the usage of Google services. In this study, we have conducted surveys at the IT University of Gothenburg, to investigate how many participants that have read or possess some knowledge of the privacy policy. We have found that very few participants claim to have read the privacy policy. However, the participants generally have some knowledge of the policy. Despite having gained deeper knowledge of the privacy policy, there is no noticeable effect on the usage of Google services, but approximately 1/4 of the participants claim that the way they perceive Google as a company has changed. A majority of the latter express an amount of concern as a result of the gained knowledge of the policy. Although these participants show concern, they do not make any changes to the way they use Google services.