RSS
Home
Worried about Google storing too much info?
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Several weeks ago I wrote a few columns about Google Apps vs. Microsoft Office. Fear running rampant and unfounded about Google Apps, was written in response to several comments and emails I received about another previous column on Google Apps. One “fear” expressed by several readers was that “Google stores and shares way too much info with others.” Well, fear no more - or at least, fear less.
Yesterday, at a European privacy conference in Spain, Google showed off their new Google Dashboard. What does it do? Well, among other things, it summarizes user account info and shows what gets collected for other products. From there, you can change your privacy settings to suit your tastes. Actually, you’ve been able to do this all along, but the Dashboard makes it easier to find all the right info, putting it in one convenient place.
Is there a catch? Always. Dashboard provides info only on products with log-in options. It does not give you a rundown on info shared through cookies, so you’ll still be receiving ads and emails from folks who peek at your viewing preferences and habits. Dashboard also does not change the actual storage and use of data over long periods of time - it may not be of the moment, but it is still likely to provide (supposedly) unidentified statistics for historical analyses. Still, it’s better than nothing!
If you’re a Facebook user you’re already familiar with this kind of tool. If you check out the security and privacy settings in Facebook you’ll see similar opportunities to turn sharing off and on. But like Facebook, Google can’t take back what has already been granted - if you’re already on somebody’s lists, you’ll stay there, at least for awhile. No new stuff will be sent their way but your data presence will linger. And, this nifty new Dashboard may be a little misleading comfort since it allows password/sign-in product options, but does not control info linked to your IP address. In other words, for much of the info sent, “they” won’t know it is “YOU;” they’ll just know it came from somebody at your connection outlet, sent to your community, to a computer somewhere that looks and acts and is registered in an awfully similar way to YOURS!
I guess it is business as usual - “more than you had, but not as much as you want….” I feel better, don’t you?
