Recently announced, Google Dashboard shows some but not quite all of the data that Google has accrued about you – a valuable step in addressing privacy concerns. My Google footprint isn’t small – I have some shared docs, I use Feedburner, Analytics, AdSense, Adwords, probably more. Of course the challenge is that to use those service you are by definition sharing and allowing Google to capture information about you. I don’t think Google is evil, but I still worry about the long term impact of giving any one company that much information about someone. The Dashboard more than anything just gives you a visible symbol of how much you use Google’s various services. I’m not advocating that you stop using Google (or any other web site that gathers usage based information), just suggesting it’s worth thinking about your privacy and availing yourself of whatever switches are available to manage it.

A few links about it:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2355481,00.asp

http://gigaom.com/2009/11/05/google-dashboard-will-you-need-a-warrant-for-that/