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Dashboard Reveals What Google Knows About You

CWmike writes "Ever wonder exactly what Google knows about you? Google took a step today to answer that question with the unveiling of Google Dashboard, which is designed to let users see and control the copious amounts of data that Google has stored in its servers about them. 'Over the past 11 years, Google has focused on building innovative products for our users. Today, with hundreds of millions of people using those products around the world, we are very aware of the trust that you have placed in us, and our responsibility to protect your privacy and data,' Google said in a blog post today. 'In an effort to provide you with greater transparency and control over their own data, we've built the Google Dashboard.' Dashboard is set up so that users can control the personal settings in each Google product that they use. Google said the tool supports more than 20 products, including Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Web History, YouTube, Picasa, Talk, Reader, Alerts and Google Latitude. Consumer Watchdog said in a statement today that it applauds Google for giving users a single place to go to manage their data. But at the same tine, the group also came down hard on Google, contending that it needs to give users a vehicle for stopping the company from collecting any personal data."

6 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. Let's add a link. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Because it wasn't in the summary, https://www.google.com/dashboard/ is Google Dashboard.

  2. Re:Dashboard reveals what they want to by pwilli · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Web History" is what you were looking for. It is available at the dashboard.

    It's the list of everything you searched through google when you were logged into your account, complete with dates. My backlog in there reached back to early 2007. Now I've deleted all entries and deactivated that "feature".

  3. Re:Dashboard reveals what they want to by Sam+Douglas · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, its real utility is seeing what is publicly accessible. I didn't realise my Youtube account was sharing my name (username), age and gender publicly.

  4. How about a link to the dashboard? by seifried · · Score: 5, Informative

    3 links, not a single one to the actual dashboard.

    http://www.google.com/dashboard

  5. Solution by Teferison · · Score: 5, Informative

    Visit http://www.google.com/ncr (no country redirect) and google will no longer use your geolocation to determine what pages you want to see.
    Cookies required

  6. Re:Dashboard reveals what they want to by Zebedeu · · Score: 4, Informative

    Probably because it's not enabled in the first place.
    Try visiting http://www.google.com/history and see if the page suggests that you turn the service on.