Firstly, what is a privacy policy? In simple terms it tells you how a website is using the data they collect about you and who has access to it.

Most large websites will have a link to a privacy policy but as global law on this improves we should start seeing more of these as standard.

So now you know what a privacy policy is, but did you know that all the online giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Google are in the big business of collecting and monetising their user’s data. Even in the last few days Google has announced that it is changing and more importantly simplifying its privacy policy so that it can share data across it’s giant network more easily.

If this is news to you then you need to know that Google and many other website vendors have been collecting data on their users for years and using it to better their services, sell and target those same people with advertising. For instance when you create a Google search you are presented with a number of premium search results tailored to your criteria; and this is just one way Google is using that data.
But what does that mean to us, the users?

The short answer here is that Google is unifying the data collection and usage between its many free services, so in theory it won’t be collecting any more data than before, it will just use it to be more efficient between those services, which should mean better more effective services from Google that benefit us all.

The problem here though is that if you really don’t like having your data stored then the only 100% guaranteed safe option you have is to stop using Google’s array of services completely (Extreme I know!). Having said this the EU has ruled in the last week that Google’s new policy contravenes recent European legislation to protect users; so maybe things will change for the benefit of the us; either way though Google will still get some of your data.

So, Google will be collecting your data no matter how careful you are; and where there is user data there is usually advertising! I personally don’t like behavioral adverts, they are those clever little ads that know you have just been looking at holidays; and then send holiday advert to the other websites you visit, annoying yes but definitely appropriate; so I would certainly expect that with the shared data this will only become more accurate and hopefully more useful; if, a little intrusive.

I know it sounds like Google are the big bad monster trying to use your data for evil; but in my opinion we need to remember that Google allows you to search the internet with ease, receive email, store documents, socialise and navigate online for free, they are giving something to us that improves our lives and they still need to pay the bills, is it too much to ask for a little data driven advertising for totally free services? I think not, but I can certainly understand those who do!

If you still want to limit what Google do know about you then you can try and limit how much data you give, so run searches without signing into your Google account, or in your Google account preferences check the privacy settings for each service that you use until it suits you. If this still isn’t good enough then you’ll need to look for alternative that isn’t as aggressive with your data.

Since the global financial collapse I have seen a worrying trend in big business to centralise and reduce resource, designers are pulled together into regional pockets, sales teams become call centres and some skills are simply lost.

I recently read a piece from Twitter suggesting that the more you centralise the less successful any process becomes; in the piece it was demonstrated that teams of people with varying skill sets working in the same building achieved greater productivity than those within a region, so with the increasing trend to pull similar skills together I started to worry that this was destroying the chance to do our best as teams.

Let me explain, I am a designer, a creative technical mind that can produce my own designs and theories while at the same time being equally capable of bringing the ideas of others to life.  Personally, I feed from other colleagues no matter who they are; I know I am only as good as my ideas and my ideas can be constrained by my own capabilities and creative boundaries, so being able to discuss any project with others helps to free me from those constraints and improve any concepts I may already have.

This can only be done by surrounding people like myself with colleagues who have completely different skill sets, yet this is where the problem starts. Slowly but surely teams of differently skilled individuals are being removed and replaced by teams of similarly skilled individuals, these skilled teams are then all based in one place and can no longer communicate easily in a face-to-face environment with other sections of the business. Instead a meeting takes place in a conference call or emails are cascaded around to gauge opinion, any ideas put forward by others can then easily be disregarded and pushed aside during the creative process.

The popular music industry is a prime example of the separation that is happening everywhere.  Collaborating musicians never meet, the mixing is done by a team in one place while the instruments are recorded elsewhere.  This in my opinion has led to a music industry that really hasn’t managed to produce anything truly provocative and influential for the last decade at least.  Instead they keep mass-producing to a certain trend, which leaves all music of any time painfully the same.

The main culprit here is technology!  It has never been easier to communicate, share and discuss with the modern devices available to us all on a day-to-day basis, but with all the technological advances that are happening we are not communicating more, we are communicating less and I don’t think we should ever under-estimate the importance of face-to-face discussion.

Conclusion

I know that most of this is only my opinion and is not greatly backed up with ground-breaking research or examples but I work in a business where this is happening, I can see the industries and businesses around me doing the same and with that I can see that creativity is being lost.  Technology seems to me to be the only sector where there is any innovation occurring, everything else has simply started regurgitating what has gone before.

For businesses to survive and things to feel exciting they need to push boundaries, not stick to formulas, however, this appears to be happening less and less. Surely centralisation of skills can only lead to good individual skill ideas and not great team ideas.