You may not have noticed, but starting with the 3rd of July, Google has modified its main page. Just bellow the "About Google" tab, there used to be "© 2008 Google". Now that link has been swapped for this one "© 2008 - Privacy". Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the two founders of Google, opted for the term "privacy" not "privacy policy" because they wanted to keep the number of words to a minimum.

It is believed that Google has made these changes in order to obey the California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003 which states that "an operator of a commercial Web site or online service that collects personally identifiable information through the Internet about individual consumers residing in California who use or visit its commercial Web site or online service shall conspicuously post its privacy policy on its Web site". Four different privacy rights organizations asked Google to make its privacy policy more easily available in May this year.

At that time, Google officials said that the company was not in violation of the Online Privacy Protection Act since its policies regarding this issue could easily be found either by clicking on the "About Google" tab or by simply using the search engine itself to look for these policies.

Google spokesman Steve Langdon commented on the matter: "Some users, bloggers, and regulatory bodies have asked us why we didn't have a link, and, after evaluating, we decided that it was the right time to add one. While users have always been able to easily search for and find our policy before, or click through to it, this provides an easier path to learning about our privacy approach. We've also added the same link on the results page, as many users arrive on them directly," as cited by the NY Times.

This modification comes after Google was court ordered to hand over to Viacom all YouTube user information (username, IP address, viewing habits). It is also not clear why they made the decision on the eve of the 4th of July.