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.

This is an unusual post for me, on-the-whole I like writing tutorials or web design posts but something recently has affected me on a personal level and I feel I need to vent my frustration.  Six years ago my wife and I lost a son and since then we have tended his plot with tasteful and appropriate items, each year changing the toys for something a child of his age would love, that was until the local council ordered this to stop!

I wouldn’t wish the loss of a child on my worst enemy, the pain I felt at the time was unbearable and to be honest still is, as time has moved on I have learned to hide it behind a thin vale of composure.  What has made this pain easier is knowing we can bring him with us in our lives, for birthdays and Christmas’ we take him a gift and a card, at Easter a small chocolate egg, we’ve even talked about leaving a beer or two for him on his eighteenth and as long as we are alive we would keep this tradition alive. 

Now after six years the local council have asked for this to stop as they can no longer get their mowers between the graves!  Sorry did I hear that right, the last time I looked they had started bunching the baby plots so close together we could no longer stand in front of our son’s plot, not without standing on the very ground he lay beneath or on another poor child’s resting place.  For the first few months of the warning we ignored it hoping that the Council would realise their decision was not only wrong but ridiculous, but no, they have stuck to their guns and now we are being told that all items will be removed and stored for collection, only allowing us to place items on the stones themselves.  As you can imagine this has caused great upset for my family and I as well as others who have their loved ones buried at Fleetwood Cemetery and who have kept the plots in a neat a tidy state, this in turn has forced those aggrieved with this decision to call a protest which I will be attending.

If Fleetwood Cemetary was full of unkempt graves with no passion for those who have gone then the Council would simply tend them, but because we obviously care so much for those we have lost, and show it, we are being penalised!  I have been visiting Fleetwood Cemetary for the full six years my boy has been there, all the baby graves have been kept beautifully ranging from plain grass with flowers to others similar to ours, so this decision by the council confuses me.  Are we not making their job easier rather than harder?

I will join the peaceful protest tomorrow to support all those who have lost, whether it will make any difference I don’t know, all I know is losing a child really brought home to me what the meaning of  life really is and the sometimes over-the-top passion and commitent for my five year old daughter is because of that realisation, so is it really too much for me to ask to leave those toys and eventually those beers for my son.

If you have lost and are being persecuted in this way please get in touch, maybe if we all shout together and loud enough local goverments will have to listen.