Irony Alert: Google ‘Good to Know’ Ad Campaign Educates Users About Privacy ~ Pare News

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Google introduced Tuesday a multimillion dollar ad campaign focusing on the importance of protecting personal information online in an attempt to ward off charges that the tech giant violates users’ privacy,

The campaign, based on an initiative the company launched last October, has a large offline component, including billboard ads and print executions in newspapers like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today.

The ads take an understated approach to the subject matter. For instance, an execution that’s running in the New Yorker this week features a cartoon drawing of a man trying to find a plumber. “You live in Peoria. Do you really need a plumber from New York?” the copy asks. The ad goes on to explain that Google’s search results are based on your location, which is revealed by your IP address.

Other topics covered in the ads include password management and the use of information gleaned from behavioral targeting to produce more relevant search results.

Google’s handling of private information has been a touchy topic for the search company. In particular, the Federal Trade Commission took Google to task for employing users’ private information from Gmail for Google Buzz, its ill-fated social network, in 2010. Google settled with the FTC last March. One of the conditions of the settlement is that Google had to implement a privacy program and undergo regular privacy audits over the next 20 years. (Another target of an FTC privacy probe, Facebook, agreed to a similar deal with the FTC in November. The FTC is also reported to be looking into Google’s recent integration of information from Google+ into its searches.)

It’s not clear whether this latest campaign is part of that settlement. Google reps could not be reached for comment. Google told The Associated Press, though, that the campaign’s budget is in the “tens of millions.”

What do you think of Google’s new ad campaign? Convincing or does it reek of contractual obligation? Let us know in the comments.