People are always wondering exactly how much Google knows about them and they have just launched what they call the Google dashboard which aggregates all of a user’s Google service accounts – Blogger, Picasa, Google Docs and all the rest – in to a single interface with access to privacy settings and account-management tools.
Probably only scratches the surface, but it gives you a good idea. If you have Google as your homepage then there is likely to be little that escapes their attention about your surfing habits.
Google have designed the dashboard to give people “greater transparency and control” over personal account data stored by Google and you can see in one place a summary of the data in all the Google products you use and you can also manage this data and change settings.
It also allows users to rediscover long-forgotten accounts, maybe a blog once started but never continued. Strangely, checking it out, I discovered I had used Google Docs at some stage – don’t remember that! – and was able to look at the files I had stored.
Of course you can always just throw your hands in the air and say, ‘Aw, who cares, Google owns me lock stock and barrel anyway’ and just get on with life.