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HOUGHTON -- “Privacy, it’s argued by the founders of these companies that privacy has no value to us anymore as citizens, but I really think it does,” said Randy Harrison, graduate student of communication and cultural study at Michigan Tech.  

We live in a technological age. Everywhere you turn, someone is on a phone or laptop, and every time those electronics are used, that information is stored on a server.

Google is rewriting their privacy policy which will allow them to take all of the information from separate accounts, like YouTube and Gmail, and combine them.

“With a big body of data like that, which you can’t do when it’s separate, you can start to make connections between where someone is and the kinds of searches they are likely to do,” said Charles Wallace, associate professor of computer science.

This new policy also gives Google the ability to better advertise to their user because of the information they have gathered.

Google is planning on making this change March 1, and even though they say it will improve the users' experience, there is one group in particular that is against the idea.

Recently Congress held a hearing with Google and expressed their concerns on how users can protect their privacy, what information is stored, and when it is deleted. Google says no new information will be collected about users, and this sharing of information is only going to help the user.

“Google’s motto is ‘Don’t be evil,’ and they ask the consumer to trust them with all of this information, and that’s the real problem is that when a company has recourse, all of this information about you, and you’re not in control of that information,” Harrison said.  

Users will not be given the opportunity to opt out of this new policy, and if they disagree with the changes, they will have to close their account and try another service.