Google's new service is designed to help those concerned about their privacy online to track what the search engine knows about them. It's good to have a central place from which to use its services, but it's making a lot of people nervous. Keep reading to find out why.
Google’s new Dashboard service was released as recently as November, 2009 and is already making quite a few people uncomfortable. Though it seems as if the company has perfected the art of making people uncomfortable; this is illustrated by their recent dealings with the FCC over their Google Voice service, their awkward situation with the newspaper industry as a result of their Fast Flip service, and the fact that they keep churning out free services that crush long-standing names in business, like their free GPS service that has knocked well-known names like Garmin and Tom-Tom down a peg or two.
Google Dashboard is an entirely different animal, however, and it’s making some users wary of just how much their online behaviors are being tracked, indexed, and stored by the corporation.
How it Works
According to Google, the benefit of having a “central dashboard” is that it gives users insight into the amount of data Google collects about them, while also enabling them to have a central access point to all of the Google services they use.
Since Google Dashboard was released, many avid Internet users are finding that they’ve been using online services for months, if not years, without knowing they were Google services. Because of that, Dashboard is capable of shedding a great deal of light on a person’s Internet activity and making them aware of the types of services they utilize while online.
If you want to view your Dashboard, simply go to Google.com and click the down-arrow that’s located next to the link for your “settings.” From there, you should select "Google account settings,” which will immediately take you to Google Dashboard.
You have to log in to your Google account to access your Dashboard, which simply requires logging in to your Gmail account. Once you’ve signed in, you should notice that each Google service you’ve ever used (and surely there will be some you didn’t even know you’ve used) is clearly listed, along with information pertaining to your last login, any recent items or actions, and various links that lead to Google Dashboard’s privacy policy.
At this point, you can change your settings or customize your account if you so choose. Most likely, though, you’ll want to get straight to the good stuff and check out what kinds of information Google has stored concerning your Google-related Internet activity.
Google Optimization 
