Critics have hit out at Google's decision to merge personal data from Google accounts including YouTube, Gmail, search, Google+ and dozens of their other services. Forthcoming changes to privacy settings, set to take effect from 1 March, will see data shared across all these platforms. Users cannot opt out of the changes. Google claims that the update will offer more relevant searches but critics say that it is instead related to the data battle the search giant is waging with arch-rival Facebook. Alma Whitten, Google's director of privacy, product and engineering, told the BBC that the changes were necessary to…
