Google campaign will promote security and privacy

INTERNET SEARCH OUTFIT Google is starting an advertising and awareness campaign to help its users steer their way through uncharted and dangerous internet waters.

The firm has announced its plans in a blog post and says that it will follow this up with real adverts in real things, like newspapers and on the street. The campaign is called Good to Know and mimics an earlier campaign in the UK.

"Does this person sound familiar? He can't be bothered to type a password into his phone every time he wants to play a game of Angry Birds. When he does need a password, maybe for his email or bank website, he chooses one that's easy to remember like his sister's name-and he uses the same one for each website he visits," says a blog post authored by Alma Whitten, director of privacy, product and engineering at Google.

"For him, cookies come from the bakery, IP addresses are the locations of Intellectual Property and a correct Google search result is basically magic."

In the absence of any proper education about technology and its dangers Google is stepping in to fill the void, and through its "Good to Know" campaign will impart a sort of "How to" guide for staying safe on the internet.

"Most of us know someone like this. Technology can be confusing, and the industry often fails to explain clearly enough why digital literacy matters," adds Whitten. "So today in the U.S. we're kicking off Good to Know, our biggest-ever consumer education campaign focused on making the web a safer, more comfortable place."

The campaign will use newspaper adverts to spread its message and Google has created a web site and video with some other key guidance like using two factor authentication and not choosing passwords like 'password'. µ