Google Privacy Dashboard

Google Dashboard which allows a top-level summary view of all your Google products that you use

google-dashboardAs Google expands the number of products, they also vastly increase the amount of data they collect about your online behaviour and activities. So they launched Google Dashboard to help you control the vast amounts of data you generate through your online activities.
Every email you send and receive, blogs you subscribe to, google news stories you prefer to read, what YouTube clips you watch, websites you visit and even what you buy with Google Checkout. Some of these actions may not be associate with your specific Google profile and you have to grant Google permission to associate much of this data with your profile.
Even Google understands that it is hard to keep track of everything so they now offer their users Google Dashboard which allows a top-level summary view of all your Google products that you use.
google-dashboard-productsYou can drill down to specific products to view more detailed data and to increase security they do not duplicate the database of all the data. This is a massive step forward for transparency of what data Google products have collected and also allows for notification of what is publically visible. This privacy dashboard appears to be a measure to reduce the growing worries about online privacy for consumers and how it maybe commercialised by some companies.
Google use a simple icon shown below to indicate any items in your Google Dashboard is visible to others. Using Google Dashboard can be a faster way to discover if any unwanted private or personal is public.
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As TechCrunch points out you this Dashboard does not include any of their cookie-based data collected through DoubleClick or their other ads. You need to use their separate Google Ad Preference Manager

ads-preferencesMany of the ads you see online are based on ad networks such as Google, and they now allow you to ensure these ads are more relevant. By selecting your interests categories they can deliver more interesting ads but you can also elect to be opted out so ads are no longer associated with your browser.

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You can also elect to expand this opt out to include some of the many other ad networks outside of google by selecting to opt out of the NAI member network.

naiBy opting out of an ad network program using the NAI Opt-out Tool this should not affect other any services provided by NAI members that rely on cookies, such as email or photo-hosting.

The Network Advertising Initiative has adopted a policy that all NAI member companies set a minimum lifespan of five years for their opt out cookies.

By opting out of a ad network does that mean that you will no longer receive online advertising but these ads will no longer be tailored to your online usage patterns and web preferences. The Opt-out Tool was developed for the express purpose of allowing consumers to “opt out” of behavioural ads delivered by NAI member companies.

Your ads preferences only apply in this browser on this computer, so that if you use a different browser or delete your browser’s cookies these preferences need to be reset.

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