Experts: Google privacy shift will have greater impact on Android users

Google doesn’t make much money from its Android phones, but chief executive Larry Page recently vowed in an earnings call that that was about to change. A push by the company to create clearer online profiles of Web surfers may turn the promise into reality, analysts say.

Google’s shift in its privacy policies that will allow it to follow the activities of users as they move across the firm’s Web sites, including its highly popular YouTube, Gmail and main search engine. The company emphasized in interviews that the change would apply only to users who are signed on to their Google accounts. The initiative could be of particular significance for consumers of Android devices, who are almost always signed on to their phones and tablets, experts said. Without signing up for an account, an Android smartphone owner would be limited in what he or she could do on the device, they said.