Then they added more detail to the full privacy statement and to the faq section about privacy.

Update: It seems the privacy policy was also updated because of Google Purchases, Google’s new micropayment service.

The privacy policy now contains a statement that they are to “request credit card or other payment account information to be maintained in encrypted form on secure servers”.

Update: Google Purchases has been renamed into Google Checkout, a service that is competing with other payment processors like PayPal on the Internet. Google Checkout is not really a micropayment service. While it can be used for that, it is more a full payment processing service that offers a similar functionality to PayPal.

Google Checkout has been introduced by Google in 2006, first in the United States and then in other countries including the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

One of the main points of criticism is that Google is still not providing official phone support for the Google Checkout product. This makes it difficulty for both merchants and consumers to get aid in times of need. PayPal, a competing service, is offering phone and email support for all customers.

Google recently introduced Google Wallet, a new payment service that offers to pay with the help of a smartphone. The new service supports prepaid credit cards as well as Citi Mastercards, and more recently also Vista credit cards.

Initial partners have been Citi, MasterCard and Sprint, with additional partners to follow at a later point in time. Companies accepting payments via Google Wallet include 7-Eleven, Foot Locker, RadioShack, Subway or Toys R’ Us.