Google riled up the online community again when the search behemoth announced on Tuesday that it plans to lump more than 60 of its privacy policies into one simple rule, starting March 1.

“Our new Privacy Policy makes clear that, if you’re signed in, we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience,” wrote Alma Whitten, director of privacy, product and engineering at Google in a company blog post introducing the policy changes.

Although Google’s announcement prompted fresh claims that the company is evil, the idea that Google merges data across its various platforms is nothing new. Since at least October 2005, the company has stated in the “Information you provide” section: “We may combine the information you submit under your account with information from other Google services or third parties in order to provide you with a better experience and to improve the quality of our services.”

From a marketing perspective, this could eventually lead to better ad targeting on YouTube, Gmail, Google search and other Google services, although no new targeting tools have been unveiled. Analysts and bloggers are also calling this move an attempt by Google to compete with Facebook, which already uses targeted recommendations on its sidebar advertisements.

Google already holds the top spot in U.S. mobile display ad spending, according to eMarketer. The company pulled in 51.7 percent of U.S. mobile ad revenues last year, translating to about $750 million, the research firm states.