Google is taking on an unlikely role: wedding planner. 
 
 Just in time for Valentine's Day, Google has rolled out a dedicated site where consumers can create a wedding website, edit photos and plan their wedding using wedding-specific templates in Google Sites, Google Docs and Picnik. The company announced the move today on its official Google blog. 
 
 Google teamed up with wedding planner Michelle Rago for the templates, and Rago also provides tips to the soon-to-be-betrothed. To spread the word, Google is also hosting a wedding sweepstakes offering a prize of $25,000 and the chance to get Rago to help plan your wedding. 
 
 The site is the latest attempt by Google to insinuate itself into consumers' lifestyles. In 2008, Google launched Google Health, which is designed to let users organize, monitor, track and use health information on the site. But there's a thin line between providing helpful information and invading privacy: In 2009, Google Health partnered with CVS to provide patients online access to their prescription drug history via their Google Health accounts, raising issues about Google's access to sensitive personal information. ||||| Google is changing its privacy policy Thursday, a move that is causing a lot of anxiety among Internet activists and some users.The changes in effect allow the world's largest Internet company to collect information about its users across all its products, services and websites and store them in one place. The idea, Google says, is to create a comprehensive portrait of its users so it can offer more personalized services."In short, we'll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience," the company wrote in a Jan. 24 blog post that announced the changes.The changes won't be noticeable immediately, and Google's websites and services will function like they always have. But privacy advocates (and some European governments) are worried that with the policy changes, Google will know more about who you are, who you talk to, what you watch, where you go, and perhaps most disturbingly — what you like to buy— than any one company should know.If you are among the hand-wringers, take heart. There are some simple steps you can take to keep Google from painting too accurate a portrait of your online habits.1. Don't log in to a Google account when you go online. Google's privacy changes mostly affect people who have a Google account such as Gmail or Google+. But even if you do have a Google account, you can still use plenty of Google's services, including YouTube , Search and Maps, without logging in first. The company may still show you targeted ads based on search terms, but at least that wart cream you just bought on CVS.com won't be linked to you forever.2. Use another search engine. If you don't like the fact that Google is keeping tabs on what you are looking for, you can always try another search engine when scouring the Internet for stories on Angelina Jolie and her leg. Even better, you can rotate among a number of search engines so that no one company has a complete picture of what (or who) you like to look for online.3. Turn off the setting that allows Google to record your search history. Google has made it very simple to pause, edit or remove your search history via http://www.google.com/history. If you clear your search history, your search terms no longer will be associated with your account but still may be associated with your browser for up to 18 months, according to a Google spokeswoman.4. Take your Google data and head for the hills. In the spirit of "being big without being evil," Google created the Data Liberation Front, a website that teaches people how to export data from some key Google platforms like Google Docs and Gmail so you can quit Google without leaving all your treasured documents and emails behind.You can find it by, well, googling Data Liberation Front. ||||| Google’s Future Fight: Scott Cleland, a consumer watchdog, sees looming problems for Google after the company said it violated people’s privacy during a mapping project. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO — Google on Tuesday acknowledged to state officials that it had violated people’s privacy during its Street View mapping project when it casually scooped up passwords, e-mail and other personal information from unsuspecting computer users. 
 
 In agreeing to settle a case brought by 38 states involving the project, the search company for the first time is required to aggressively police its own employees on privacy issues and to explicitly tell the public how to fend off privacy violations like this one. 
 
 While the settlement also included a tiny — for Google — fine of $7 million, privacy advocates and Google critics characterized the overall agreement as a breakthrough for a company they say has become a serial violator of privacy. 
 
 Complaints have led to multiple enforcement actions in recent years and a spate of worldwide investigations into the way the mapping project also collected the personal data of private computer users. 
 
 “Google puts innovation ahead of everything and resists asking permission,” said Scott Cleland, a consultant for Google’s competitors and a consumer watchdog whose blog maintains a close watch on Google’s privacy issues. “But the states are throwing down a marker that they are watching and there is a line the company shouldn’t cross.” 
 
 The agreement paves the way for a major privacy battle over Google Glass, the heavily promoted wearable computer in the form of glasses, Mr. Cleland said. “If you use Google Glass to record a couple whispering to each other in Starbucks, have you violated their privacy?” he asked. “Well, 38 states just said they have a problem with the unauthorized collection of people’s data.” 
 
 George Jepsen, the Connecticut attorney general who led the states’ investigation, said that he was hopeful the settlement would produce a new Google. 
 
 “This is the industry giant,” he said. “It is committing to change its corporate culture to encourage sensitivity to issues of personal data privacy.” 
 
 The applause was not universal, however. Consumer Watchdog, another privacy monitor and frequent Google critic, said that “asking Google to educate consumers about privacy is like asking the fox to teach the chickens how to ensure the security of their coop.” 
 
 Niki Fenwick, a Google spokeswoman, said on Tuesday that “we work hard to get privacy right at Google, but in this case we didn’t, which is why we quickly tightened up our systems to address the issue.” 
 
 Last summer, the Federal Trade Commission fined Google $22.5 million for bypassing privacy settings in the Safari browser, the largest civil penalty ever levied by the F.T.C. In 2011, Google agreed to be audited for 20 years by the F.T.C. after it admitted to using deceptive tactics when starting its Buzz social network. That agreement included several rather vague privacy provisions. 
 
 The new settlement, which requires Google to set up a privacy program within six months, is more specific. Among its requirements, Google must hold an annual privacy week event for employees. It also must make privacy certification programs available to select employees, provide refresher training for its lawyers overseeing new products and train its employees who deal with privacy matters. 
 
 Several provisions involve outreach. Google must create a video for YouTube explaining how people can easily encrypt their data on their wireless networks and run a daily online ad promoting it for two years. It must run educational ads in the biggest newspapers in the 38 participating states, which besides Connecticut also include New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, Ohio and Texas. 
 
 “There are minimum benchmarks Google has to meet,” said Matthew Fitzsimmons, an assistant Connecticut attorney general who negotiated with the company. “This will impact how Google rolls out products and services in the future.” 
 
 Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center said the agreement was “a significant privacy decision by the state attorneys general,” adding that “it shows the ongoing importance of the states’ A.G.’s in protecting the privacy rights of Internet users.”
– Google has already enmeshed itself in your email, your mapping needs, your book collection … why not your wedding as well? The search giant announced Google for Weddings yesterday on its official blog. Wedding planners, watch out: The site will allow users to do everything from organizing guests lists and schedules to creating a wedding website to making save-the-date cards. (The templates were actually designed with the help of "renowned" wedding planner Michelle Rago.) Mashable notes this isn’t the first time Google has created such a personal venture: In 2008, it launched Google Health, which let users monitor their health information online. But that hit a controversial snag when Google teamed up with CVS to provide patients with access to their prescription history via Google Health, causing some to wonder if Google had too much access to sensitive information. (Click for more in the modern world of weddings.)