MSU’s Google Apps suite operates under its own terms of service, which were negotiated by MSU and the company and limits data sharing, said Brendan Guenther, director of MSU Virtual University Design and Technology. The university provides a calender, site making and document apps from Google.

Google’s new privacy policy does not trump the specific policy regarding MSU’s applications, Guenther said.

“For now, that March 1 change didn’t change anything about googleapps.msu.edu,” Guenther said.

He said the agreement between MSU and Google will eventually expire and have to be renewed.

Guenther recommended any students using Google services on their own read the new policy and decide for themselves whether or not they are willing to have their information stored and tracked. He also said the new policy is more universal across Google’s platforms and easier to read and understand.

“The people like Google that hold the master key, they can put together your search history and your browsing behavior across all sites that use Google as a tracking technology,” Guenther said. “That’s pretty pervasive power.”

Electrical technology freshman Aaron O’Neil said he uses Google services a couple of times a day, and the new policy is an invasion of the users’ privacy. He said the company is somewhat abusing its power by tracking data throughout its collection of free services, and said students should be aware of what is going on with their information.

“(Google) can take any of your information basically and track where you go,” O’Neil said. “They shouldn’t be able to do that, even if it is for advertising, that shouldn’t be the way to do it.”

Websites have been tracking user information long before Google’s new policy was implemented, said advertising professor Nora Rifon, an expert in Internet safety.

“Any company that’s not gathering information like that is going to get lost; they’ll be behind the curve,” she said.

Although this practice has been going on for years, people are just now beginning to notice it, and the average consumer might not understand the consequences of disclosing information online, Rifon said.

While the user data can be used for more specifically targeted advertising, it also can be used for malicious purposes, Rifon said. For those concerned about the gathering and sharing of their personal information, Rifon also recommended reading the privacy policies of websites they visit, especially when it comes to social networking sites such as Facebook.

“We’re at a point where I think we’re going to have to have some major reform in this country if we’re going to change things,” Rifon said. “I think privacy is gone.”