Over the last few months in the UK, Google has been running what I believe is an excellent campaign to educate users on the finer points of web security, and how websites use your data – and what you can do to control this access.
Google have the money and the reach to pull this off, and they have partnered with the citizen’s advice bureau to look at issues in 4 main areas
- Staying safe online
- Your data on the web [and how it makes websites more useful]
- Your data on Google [and how it makes Google services more profitable]
- Manage your data
The whole campaign can be accessed via google.com/goodtoknow
Google has to balance that fine line in promoting to consumers why cookies and IP location, preferences etc are a good thing (for them and advertisers) as well as outlining the issues and explaining how to stay in control.
These ads have appeared in newspapers (consecutive full-page ads), outdoor in underground stations and also on digital escalator panels in tube stations – so a pretty broad (and expensive) campaign.
The ads can also be used to educate children about how the web works and how Google sometimes “knows” where you are also how it manages to anticipate your typing mistakes.