The more Google products you use, the more data it collects about everything you do online—your search history, your emails, the blogs and news sites you read, which videos you watch on YouTube, your news alerts, tasks ,and even shopping lists. For some of these, you need to explicitly grant Google permission to keep track of data associated with your profile.
But it’s hard to keep up with everything Google is tracking.
So now the company is launching a Google Dashboard, which will give you a high-level summary of everything Google knows about you by virtue of the Google products you use. This might include how many emails are in your inbox, recent subject lines, which YouTube video you’ve watched lately (yes, all of them), appointments on your calendar, and more.
If you want more detailed data, it sends you to the particular data repository for that product. And for security purposes it does not create a second database of all the data, it just brings it up in your browser without restoring it server-side.
The Dashboard is only for Google products which require you to sign in with your Google account. It does not include cookie-based data Google collects through DoubleClick ads or other ads. For that, you need to go to the Ad Preference Manager, which has its own issues.
You can see the list of all the products the Dashboard keeps track of below.
Account & profile
Web-history
Gmail
Docs
Calendar
YouTube
Blogger
iGoogle
Latitude
Reader
Talk
Health
Orkut
Picasa
Shopping List
Voice
Contacts
Alerts
Finance
Friend Connect
Tasks
Custom search engines
Mobile Sync
a few little spelling mistakes
“The Dashboard is only for ‘Googel’ products which require you to sign in with your ‘Googel’ account”
You must be new here.
thx, fixed
For the last time, if you are concerned about privacy, don’t use Google … use http://www.yauba.com !
“We do not keep any personally identifiable information. Peroid.”
I guess we can only hope this really is the last time.
Dumb people who wrte coments to say “hey, you have a typo, hey you hve a speling mstake. Chosing form over substance. Get it now?”
YoU r RighT!!!
To some – google dashboard could be a handy tool for their busy life, but to a geek who work
in total privacy this could be a real threat to their security – As said from the mouth of Microsoft CEO
“Google reads your gmail account once ina while” when you’re under scrutiny.
detailed review: http://bit.ly/google-dashboard-biggest-spy-of-BIG-G
What about linking to the dashboard (or am I just blind): https://www.google.com/dashboard/?pli=1
why wouldn’t you put a link to what you’re talking about in the blog post?
It wasn’t live when Erick wrote this, added a link now.
u pwnd dem
These are some of the products that I use:
http://localhostr.com/files/84c525/gg.png
My dashboard is very long…..
Dude, Google owns you.
And I have one more account with around half of the services on this one + Google Apps.
This is my college telling my how many classes have i bunked, coz I havn’t really kept a track
kewl. now i know how many japanese idol videos i’ve been watching..
Transparency, choice and control – Why I don’t think so
Remember to disable ABP in Firefox before loading the page, otherwise it will skip loading the CSS
I have disabled ABP for *.google.com
Very good.Must say my dashboard will long too.
the question is not only what does it know, but: what does Google do with the data
fnance.google.com .. they sort of dont mention that
well think… you have this tool in which you know what the masses are researching in relation to the market… That’s some powerful information
wow they have a lot of my old searches, uh, oops.
I never knew Google knows so much about me …
and my web search … shhhhhh
A new feature from YouTube?
A whole screen full of videos my “friends” posted.
Friends being anyone I have ever emailed using Gmail.
Really pissed me off, I use Gmail quite a bit for business correspondents, not friends and found this quite shocking.
What about Chrome and Page Rank in the toolbar, besides Google Analytics as massive data miners?
What Google does with the user data is to bombard the user with adds which he might click…
That seems… promisingly… wonderful?
That’s what Yahoo did =.=
It says here: http://tinyurl.com/ybzqbhx
Possible typo for Google at:
“The Dashboard is only for Googel products which require you to sign in with your Googel account.”
It is unimaginable that any other corporation would be allowed to collect information like that from users.
People cheerleading for this beast!
History repeats itself: first as a tragedy (Microsoft), secondly as a FARSE (google)
wake up!
So I guess you don’t have a cell phone then? Ever ponder how much information providers can, and do, collect about users? And… you pay them for that service.
This is certainly not comparable to what Google, Facebook, etc. do.
Btw, “It does not include cookie-based data Google collects through DoubleClick ads or other ads.”
-> If I rember correctly, GoogleAnalytics is installed on about 90% (!) of the Top100 Web destinations.
Which basically means, Google knows when/how/how often/etc. you visit 9 out of 10 sites…
@The privacy preachers: This is very simple. Nothing is sacred on the internet. If you don’t like the temperature of the water… don’t get in the pool. The paradox of most people who whine about their privacy on the internet is they are the same people who fight tooth and nail for internet freedom.
I agree.
If you don’t like it, don’t use it. Simple.
You can still live in a cave and hunt for animals if that is considered safer for you…
Or accept that you use your mobile, your tv, your internet, your credit card, and everything else to give out information about yourself.
And companies use this to reach you in an efficient way.
What is the problem? I don’t get it…
And remember: Use Ubuntu
What “Googel” are you talking about?
“It is unimaginable that any other corporation would be allowed to collect information like that from users.”
The fact is, the collection is transparent and freely given in exchange for decent services. Has there been any other corporation that gives you this information?
If I don’t want Google to collect this, I can switch off my web history, change to Zoho, use Bing (yeah, right!) etc.
@klaus um, are you kidding? Who is stopping companies from collecting info about us. They do it everywhere. Surveys, census, demographics…when you swipe that club card at the grocery store, etc, etc. The internet just makes it easier.
If you didnt already know by using Google Products they store your data, you’re an idiot. – just sayin.
I don’t understand why people care so much about the privacy issue. It seems as though the people who make a fuss about privacy don’t really give reasons why they are pissed off besides the fact that their “privacy is being invaded”. How is this going to make your life so bad? If it really is such a terrible thing, then why not just not use the FREE services Google and other companies offer. Big deal, Google knows that you search for “herpes” on August 15th 2008. Don’t search for it if you don’t want them knowing. Pick up a medical encyclopedia instead.
@Bri it’s not a big deal until they start selling those information to insurance companies that make consumptions “I’m sorry but in our records it says you have herpes, the price of this insurance is raised 30%”.
Sorry, but Google knows a lot more about you than what they’re saying on your “dashboard”. For example, if you are running Adsense then they also know where you live, where they send your check, they know about all of the web sites you own, they know your ISP, your location, etc. etc. Even your social security number.
And your employer, who also pays you knows where you live, how much money you make, who you email, you ss number, your location, etc as well. I don’t get the point. Don’t use Adsense to make money on your site if you don’t want Google knowing where you live, geez.
Step 1: Disable web history
Step 2: Google stuff
Disabled web history a long time backk.. there was an interesting article about a man whose entire search history got public by mistake, it included his divorce search, his suicide searches, drugs etc
Better safe then sorry…
VERY interesting, especially about the google searches. Good thing I love Google and don’t really care what they know about me…I don’t have anything to hide!
You mean, you don’t care about all the personal emails you have, pics, passwords, bank statements etc etc in your favourite gmail…
nothing 2 hide… good..
Google makes their money via ads. You’re going to see ads online regardless of what people know about you, and the more data the ad provider has, the better targeted the ads are. For the most part, I no longer want to kill myself with all those “Shock the Monkey” and “Swat the Fly” ads that are broad and pointless. So from a top-level point of view, I don’t have much of an issue with them collecting usage data to at least give me ads that I might care about.
I think my concern, personally, is the fact that this market data information is side-by-side within one company and one user account with personally identifiable data. While my dashboard doesn’t have any search history info (disabled that forever ago), it does have my mailing address, full name, cell phone number, birthday – more than enough to identify me six ways from Sunday. Google has to be able to separate PID from non-PID – if that means an entirely new database dedicated to full names, addresses, etc. of its users that isn’t in any way, shape or form connected to their market research data, that would be acceptable to me.
Full disclosure: I do work for an online ad network, so my views are probably rather strongly affected by that.
I think the article is misleading. You must have Google Toolbar downloaded and activated in order for them to collect data about you. Otherwise it just doesn’t collect the data about you. Case in point is if one is using a public computer, how would Google be able to identify each person’s searches independently from the pool of all users? So much for unfounded paranoia.
Wrong. Toolbar has nothing to do with it. Much of the data is associated with your Google ID while you are signed in. You are correct that Google cannot associate your searches with your identify from a public computer unless you explicitly identify yourself.
If you really want to ensure data about your current browsing session is never associated with your profile, use Chrome’s incognito mode. Or just use the new dashboard to delete whatever you don’t want retained. Despite what all the privacy nuts would like you to believe, there’s no evil conspiracy going on here.
Many of us are logged in gmail all the time, meanwhile, using google search… thats where it stores all our searches.. if not disabled…
This is scary… google is now the most powerful organization in the world when it comes to personal information… evile!
Heard that google has interest in space programs too, along with NASA… MA should write an article.. or already done that?
atrocious that Google can store this much data about their users and not get bashed as much by the community as Microsoft do . . . . I mean seriously WHAT are they doing with this data about their users? Why exactly should they care which videos we watched in the last 72 hours or when we go to work? WHY!?
Simple answer: advertising. What videos you watched in the last three days, when correlated with what search queries you’ve run, can perhaps show that you’re looking for a car, and watching videos about the new 3-series BMW. Knowing when you go to work, combined with network-wide data on when and where people are most likely to be exposed to and click on ads, lets them know when you’re most likely to look at an ad they serve.
So with that data, Google can place and AdSense ad on a site you visit for the car you’re looking for, at the time when you tend to be on the Internet for non-work purposes. Less impressions per click, less waste of advertising inventory, more money made by Google.
It’s useful for much more than just advertising. The data is also used to improve the quality of Google’s products, in a variety of ways.
It only makes sense that they want to track and learn about their users. Companies have been doing this since way before the Internet and I expect that they will continue to do so in the future.