Google updates its Terms of Service to include Chrome and Chrome OS

[harlan4096]

If you visit a Google website right now you will likely see a notification at the top stating that the company has changed its Terms of Service and that the new terms will take effect on March 31, 2020.

The message, "We're updating our Terms of Service. Get to known our new Terms before they take effect on March 31, 2020", has "review" and "got it" buttons attached to it.

One of the most important changes in the new Terms of Service is that the updated terms apply to Google Chrome, Google Chrome OS, and Google Drive as well.

You can check out the summary of major changes here to get an overview of important changes. Google published a special page for Google Chrome and Chrome OS that summarizes the changes for these two separately.

We added Google Chrome, Google Chrome OS, and Google Drive to the list of services that the Terms apply to. With this change, these services are governed by the Terms of Service and also a smaller set of service-specific additional terms.

Google notes that it has not "made any changes to the way" it treats customer data and that the updated terms do not "change the service" that the company provides.

The updated terms will not change the service we provide to you. This change makes it easier to understand the general terms that apply to most Google services — which now include Chrome and Chrome OS — alongside the service-specific additional terms and policies that apply to particular Google products. Our privacy policies aren’t changing. The Google Privacy Policy still applies to personal information you provide to Google when you use Chrome and ChromeOS [...]

Essentially, what Google will do from March 31, 2020 onward is that it will treat Google Chrome and Chrome OS equal to other company services. One of the most important takeaways from that is that the Terms will apply to Chrome users who don't use a Google Account now. Previously, the Terms would apply to Google Account owners.

What is particularly problematic about that is that non-Google account users get no options to control the data that collects and don't get access to some other privacy related settings because they are only available to customers with a Google Account.

Google Chrome and Chrome OS users who don't want to accept the updated Terms of Service have only one option according to Google: to stop using the services.

Now You: What is your take on these changes?
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