Michael Zimmer.org

After coming under attack for refusing to add a simple hyperlink to help users find their privacy policy, Google has added the word “privacy”, with a link to its privacy policy, to its home page (image via Google):

Google, for whatever reason, isn’t directly acknowledging that there was public pressure to take this simple step. The announcement on Google’s public policy blog frames it in a self-congratulatory manner, noting how it’s putting “users’ privacy first and foremost” and strengthening user trust, etc, etc. And their main blog relates some odd story by Marissa Mayer about the history of measuring the number of words on Google’s homepage, and makes it sound like they had to make some great sacrifice to add the word “privacy” without violating the feng shui of the homepage. The word privacy doesn’t even appear in the title, so most causal readers won’t even know that’s what is being announced.

I’m thrilled Google has found the wisdom to add these 7 letters and a bit of HTML code to link to its privacy policy. I just wish they could be a bit more forthright in why it is important and why they’ve suddenly decided to make the change.

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