November 4, 2009 1:12 PM PST

Google Dashboard lifts curtain on stored data

by Tom Krazit
  • Font size
  • Print
  • 9 comments

Google Dashboard lets Google users review and delete personal data stored by the company.

(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)

Google is proving to be well aware of the uneasiness among the public over the increasing amount of data it stores from users of its services.

Google is launching Google Dashboard, a service that lets you log into a console and see all the personal data that the company maintains on a Google Account user across all its products, from Gmail and YouTube to Blogger and Picasa. It allows users to log into the settings page of their Google account and review links to the personal data stored by Google across many of its products from a single Web page.

Users can delete data, change privacy settings, and read the privacy policies from various accounts on that page, which is scheduled to go live Thursday. Google had been prebriefing news outlets on the announcement, but a YouTube video outlining the service was somehow published on Google's Privacy Channel on YouTube and spotted by the Google Operating System blog.

One of the overarching themes with regards to Google this year has been the increasing discomfort among both the public and the government with the degree to which Google has grown to dominate the Internet. With nearly two-thirds of all Internet searches passing through its servers and growing numbers of people using its Google Docs, Gmail, and YouTube services, Google is a vital gateway to information for Internet users.

Google has tried to placate critics, recently emphasizing that it tries very hard to let users export any data they enter into one of Google's products through the work of the Data Liberation Front. Dashboard is another step in that direction as Google tries to emphasize that users have control over the data it stores on them.

Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom.
Recent posts from Relevant Results
Why Google may want Yelp
Google's top antitrust defender: 'It's fun'
Google ponders risky Android solo act
Web accessibility no longer an afterthought
Google's speed freaks tweak suggestions, Chrome
Yahoo joins the real-time search parade
For AOL and Yahoo, it's deja vu all over again
Google hopes to turn the river into a canal
Add a Comment (Log in or register) (9 Comments)
  • prev
  • 1
  • next
by codynews November 4, 2009 2:39 PM PST
Should make the tinfoil hat crowd very happy

(no, I'm not trying to be disparaging)

Cody
Reply to this comment
by Super2online November 4, 2009 4:53 PM PST
I hate to state the obvious, but there can boat loads of other info or duplicates their not showing you. Don't know why they would want to, just saying.
Reply to this comment
by Police_States_of_America November 4, 2009 6:01 PM PST
that might put them in a very sticky situation, legally speaking. of course google is banking off most users never erasing their data, but the geeks like me that do care should be closer to content.
by jeffyablon November 5, 2009 6:23 AM PST
So I look at google.com/dashboard and check out my account. And I like having all my \"stuff\" in one place. I even see that my address is wrong on one item, reflecting a home I moved out of several years ago.

It's neat!

And it does nothing except aggregate my google stuff. It does NOT tell me "what they know about me". It does NOT help manage my security settings; reality: my user name and email address get me in, just as they always did.

IN FACT, from a security standpoint, Google Dashboard is a huge step BACKWARD, as anyone who knows my name and password can now alter all my stuff from one, nice, convenient page!

What were they thinking?

[CNET editors' note: URL removed]
Reply to this comment
by pcatling November 6, 2009 1:23 PM PST
I don't think outfits like Google expect or want it's customers to think. They arrogantly believe that they can do all that for us. And, we let them!
by George-Anthony November 5, 2009 8:32 AM PST
Maybe I'm wrong, but I am pretty sure all of this info was already available, no? I just finished logging into the "new" Dashboard (side note: great Modest Mouse song), and none of the info provided was new to me or not previously available whenever I logged into "settings/account." Someone please enlighten me.
Reply to this comment
by metalorn November 5, 2009 12:32 PM PST
Google web history, YouTube favorites, contacts... a marketeerīs dream.

rafael vargas
movieamore.com
Reply to this comment
by 0ri0n November 6, 2009 11:40 AM PST
I may be mistaken, but this service is only if you have a google account. What about managing all of the data collected on you without a google account?
Reply to this comment
by Kasar99 November 9, 2009 4:15 PM PST
I haven't been too concerned, I've been using alternatives since the whole data mining thing came up. The AOL database that led to locating people was enough to convince me. I also run ad blockers and script blocks, though Google analytics is pretty heavily tied into some websites so that can be touchy.

I use Ixquick with a secure sockets layer, so even Comcast doesn't know when I'm searching for utilities to delete iTunes duplicates.
Reply to this comment
(9 Comments)
  • prev
  • 1
  • next
advertisement

Google's top antitrust defender: 'It's fun'

Life at Google is certainly different than government service for senior competition counsel Dana Wagner, but his past and present collide on a daily basis at the search giant.

CE industry hopes 'Avatar' is a hit

Good box office returns for the 3D film are expected to spur 3D entertainment from the theater to the living room.

About Relevant Results

Relevant Results focuses on the big Internet companies of our time, tracking the evolution of search, communication, and business on the Web. Tom Krazit examines how a shift to mobile computing and the growing demand for online content affect our understanding of how to deliver information in the 21st century, in between bemoaning the state of the New York Mets and searching for the perfect IPA.

Add this feed to your online news reader

Relevant Results topics

advertisement
advertisement

Inside CNET News

Scroll Left Scroll Right