Last week Google announced their new privacy policy to the world. The changes in the way that Google combines and uses information one shares with its services is effective in less than a month, on March the 1st. There is a few absolutely basic facts that every Internet user (be it a Google ID user or not) should be aware of in the context of the change, and I will try to brief them here. I would love to learn and understand how exactly non-profit organizations will be affected by the new policy -- I understand that this is a very complex issue, and it is still hard to distill how this situation will be different and unique for the civil sector in particular. It doesn’t make the questions any less important or urging for an answer though. The new Google Privacy Policy run about 10,000 words, and I strongly recommend the read.

Starting March 1st any information that Google engines tracked so far, and used for customizing a specific tool of your use (e.g. you must have noted the search results being differently positioned based on how you used the engine before) will be now available almost across the entire spectrum of Google products: “If you're signed in, we may combine information you've provided from one service with information from other services (...). In short, we'll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.”-- Google's director of privacy, product and engineering, Alma Whitten wrote in a blog post. 

The Ashoka Changemakers are running  "Citizen Media: A Global Innovation Competition", in partnership with Global Voices and with the support of Google. The goal of the competition is to identify and amplify new ideas for media that catalyze participatory citizenship.

Google+ is the latest social network offering from the search-engine giant. While it remains to be seen whether it will gain the popularity with individuals to rival Facebook or Twitter, organizations are considering whether to invest in setting up an institutional presence.

Will Google+ be another tool for nonprofits to leverage the power of the internet to achieve their missions? Several important voices in the nonprofit community have offered their advice for social change organizations that are thinking about taking the plunge.

Late in June 2011, Google reattempted to go social. Even though the Google Plus launch was only announced with a simple blog post by Vic Gundotra, we all heard about it, and — dare I say it — we are all there. The well-known power of “exclusive” made us want to join the club. It might still be early to call it a hit. Nevertheless, the initial wave of interest has pushed Google stock up 13%.

The Program: Enoch Moeller, Operations Manager for the Google data center in Lenoir, NC, will lead a discussion of the broad selection of Google applications and services that are available for qualifying nonprofit organizations. Join us Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 6:30 PM (EST), UNC-TV, 10 T.W. Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC. See http://www.meetup.com/NCTech4Good/events/27113921/ for more information and to RSVP. NOTE: A good portion of the non-profit programs that he will discuss will not apply for non-US based organizations.

Unable to travel? Join us remotely!

Good day social change makers! 

My name is Natalie Villalobos and I'm the founder of 300 Acres - a project that is attempting to raise $70,000 in 30 days to save 300 acres of ancestral land for the Shuar/Quichua people in Puyo, Ecuador.

We started the project this past Monday, March 5th and will give our biggest outreach push and donation raising through April 5th. We only have until April 5th to attain these funds or the land will be purchased by a development group that is interested in dividing the land - potentially cutting down the old growth trees, and starting a gold mining enterprise. This of course is explicitly against the wishes of the native people of this region.

I have been discussing what I call Scratch My Back Marketing since the beginning of 2009. I figured that it was finally time to write a specific post on the topic. Scratch My Back Marketing is based on a lifestyle and spiritual principal of giving to get. That’s right as in is better to give than receive. Now, I have nothing against receiving especially if it involves material resources such as capital. However, for our purposes I will settle for great comments left on my blog.

I hadn’t been following the news recently, so I was genuinely surprised when I saw “Google Buzz” in my Gmail dashboard today. My first impression is: this could work for me. But not as a replacement of Twitter. I rather see it as something to replace FriendFeed.

I have to admit – I never really got the hang of FriendFeed. While I want a service or an application that helps me to aggregate different forms of information streams, I don’t want to have to visit an additional site. But Buzz is integrated into Gmail which I visit a dozen times a day anyhow. And since most people I know check their Gmail or the iGoogle Dashboard regularly, this means you have real chance to create a lively discussion through Buzz.

Recent announcements by Google make me think, that the company might go down a path that would ultimately mean more inequality, a worse position for developing countries and a widening digital divide.

I’m referring specifically to Chrome OS, Google’s new operating system, and the announcement that Google would dump Google Gears, a service that makes it possible to use services like GoogleDocs offline. In both cases, Google emphasized the importance of cloud computing as opposed to working offline. The idea is that all data, i.e. your spread sheets, your documents, your photos, get stored on remote servers (a.k.a. "the cloud") and none of it on your machine.

Read more on: http://sm4good.com/2009/12/21/google-cloud-search-giant-widening-digital...

Google Web History is a service that stores your Google searches and the results you clicked on. This can be helpful if you can’t find a site anymore which you found useful earlier.

What Google Web History is not supposed to do is to continue to log searches from a computer that you haven’t been using in months! But that is exactly what has been happing to me! Read more: http://sm4good.com/2009/11/30/unforgettable-privacy-hole-google-web-hist...