• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, March 1, 2012

Today marks the first day of Google’s new privacy policy -- an event that has Web watchers waiting to see how consumers and their advocates respond.

“The biggest local critics have been U.S. Congress and state attorneys general,” VentureBeat notes. “The National Association of Attorneys General outlined several concerns around the new policy in a stern letter.”

At the very least, it’s “causing a lot of anxiety among Internet activists and some users," the  Los Angeles Times believes.

Essentially, Google can now collect information about users across all its products, services and Web sites, and store it in one place. “In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience,” the search giant explained in a blog post earlier this year.

Whether consumers are informed -- or interested enough -- to question Google’s changes remains to be seen. 

While Google worked hard to inform users about its privacy policy changes, many have not cared enough to learn about them, according to The Inquirer. “According to a survey from Big Brother Watch, only about one in 10 [British] users looked at information provided by the firm about the changes.”

Whether consumer care or not, data protection agencies in European countries have already concluded that Google's new privacy policy is in breach of European law, Reutersreports. What they plan on doing about it is not yet clear.

Meanwhile, consumers aren’t the only ones potentially affected by Google’s new policy. “One fear for Google's rivals is that the company's huge reach across search, mobile, video, social networking and advertising makes its vast cache of information almost impossible for smaller or more focused rivals to compete,” The Guardian writes.