Group files FTC complaint against Google for privacy changes

"On a fundamental level, the policy appears to invade consumer privacy by automatically sharing personal information consumers input into one Google product with all Google products," the letter said. "Consumers have diverse interests and concerns, and may want the information in their Web History to be kept separate from the information they exchange via Gmail."

Google defended the changes. The updated privacy policy "will make our privacy practices easier to understand, and it reflects our desire to create a seamless experience for our signed-in users," the company said in a statement. "We've undertaken the most extensive notification effort in Google's history, and we're continuing to offer choice and control over how people use our services. Of course we are happy to discuss this approach with regulators globally."

An FTC representative said the agency has received the CDD complaint but would not comment further.

Other privacy groups have also complained about the proposed changes. Earlier this month, the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a lawsuit against the FTC for the agency's alleged failure to enforce the privacy settlement.

The CDD complaint is not related to recent reports that Google has changed the privacy settings in the Safari and Internet Explorer browsers in order to install cookies. CDD doesn't plan to file a complaint about those reports, but is instead focused on the proposed changes to the company's privacy policy, Chester said.