Google's Privacy Dashboard Doesn't Tell Us Anything We Didn't Know Before
Earlier this morning, Google launched the Google Dashboard. This new feature gives users a quick overview of the Google products they use and a slice of the data that is connected to these accounts. Google sells this as a way to enhance "transparency, choice and control," though it is important to note that none of this information is new. The dashboard simply brings all of this data together in one place and gives users an easy way to access the privacy controls in the Google services they use.
The dashboard lists all of the active accounts a user has on a selection of Google services. These include, among others, Google Calendar, Contacts, Docs, Finance, Picasa, Reader, YouTube and Voice. There are also still dozens of services like Google Maps, News and Book Search that don't appear in the dashboard yet.
The dashboard itself doesn't offer the ability to change any privacy settings. It links to the respective services' privacy pages where users can make changes.
Nothing New
It is true that, as Google puts it, the "scale and level of detail of the Dashboard is unprecedented" - Google never made something like this available before. The data that appears in the dashboard isn't really the data that Google is interested in, though. All Google really cares about is the data that it can use to show you better AdSense ads.
This Is It?
As the LA Times points out, Google's "data storage revolves around precisely how and what the company does to analyze and profit from user information." This would be interesting information to have, though it's also the data that Google is the least likely to share. Google also doesn't share information it collects about you through cookies, its server logs or its advertising programs.
It is good to see that Google makes it easier for users to see an overview of all the data they have given to Google and made public. Maybe it will come as a surprise to some people that Google knows what emails they have received and that the company keeps track of all the YouTube videos they have watched. For most users, though, the dashboard won't offer any major revelations.
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Thank you! Everyone has been jumping up and down all morning acting as if Google Dashboard was some miraculous new product that was going to end world hunger and cure cancer. It's nothing special. Here's a new product that tell's all the information you have given us.. well no crap, I gave it all to you..
Glad someone else saw it my way..
Has anyone here kept a diary....and years after writing an entry, looked back at it, And even though you wrote every single word, were still surprised at what you had written?
Yes, you know the name of the video you watched last tuesday, but do you remember the ones you watched 18 months ago?
Reviewing a log of all the videos you watched over the past 2 years might reveal information that a fuzzy head memory would likely obscure.
We often know and yet we never fully know. Dashboard gives people another way to look at the footprint they are leaving in the sand.
It doesn't share that data because it's not linked to your Google Account...ever. It's anonymized and only analyzed in aggregate.
Yeah, i just had a chance to experience dashboard and was surprised to even see the history of my watched you tube videos :)
Atleast I find it good..
I dont remember how many Google services I have signedup and now I have a
admin space from where I can see and control all my stuff associated with Google.