This probably doesn’t violate any laws, or even Google’s new privacy policy, but it is definitely creepy. If you search for “pet meds” on Google and you’re signed in, Google pre-fills your gmail address into the ad widget. That doesn’t mean they’ve automatically sent it to the advertiser – God help them if they did – but it sends the absolute wrong message to users about where Google’s priorities lie.
And for it to be happening now, while they are rolling out their new privacy policy and taking criticism from all over the world, is just dumb.
I go to Google to do searches. I don’t go there to do social networking, but they thrust that into my face. And I certainly don’t go to Google to have it pre-fill personal information into advertisements for me. Stop it.
Uncrunched 