More and more, people use several Google products every day to do all kinds of routine things – email, chat, shopping, documents, kitten videos, RSS, Waving, on and on. It’s easy to forget how much information you’re handing off.

Well, Google is now providing a new service that lets you see what’s happening on all of their other services. It’s called Google Dashboard, and it summarizes all the stuff you’re storing on Google’s servers and gives you access to various settings.

It can be a little unnerving to see all this info laid out on one page, but the intention is good—Google is making it easy to find what they’re storing about you, and easy to change your settings if it gets too creepy.

Participation is mandatory.

Anthony Hecht is The Stranger's Chief Technology Officer. He owns no monkeys.

12 replies on “What Does Google Know About You?”

  1. So, if Microsoft did this, the Stranger would report it as a horrible, disgusting, dangerous thing that shows the lack of innovation Microsoft has; but if Google or Apple do it, it’s like fluffy unicorns dancing on musical rainbows while skinny blonde boys and gorgeous black women make out with everyone. Now I get it.

  3. What does Google know about me? Easy one: Exactly the same amount Microsoft knows about me. Absolutely nothing of any substance.

  4. Pretty much they have access to my email and that’s it.

    But I kind of know what I’m getting into when I sign up with a private company for my email.

  5. On a serious note, maybe it is time for The Stranger to do a good article on that company in Redmond. They are a major employer, and have helped keep the Seattle area on the map. They are obviously not doing as well as back in the 90’s, what are they doing wrong? What are they doing right? It is shameful that they were one of the first companies to work on Mobile OSs, yet now Apple and Google are eating their lunch. The XBox succeeded but their quality control on it was very low. Apple may claim their OS is the greatest, yet a vast majority still uses Windows (XP, not Vista or 7). The Office suite was once completely indispensable, but now people are just as happy with free online solutions. What will it take for Microsoft to be cool? What do you think Anthony? I am writing this on my iPhone, which I once loved so much, and now dissappoints me with 6 hours of battery life and the need to be restarted every day (and this is the famed 3Gs) seems that Apple is not as good as it was in 2006…

  7. there is way too much hype About this. Very stupid. all they are dOIng is layout out the Damn services you use in an easy To see fasHion. lEts not get too paraNOID.

  9. 46 things they left off my dashboard: (copied from the HuffPost)

    “Thanks to Anne Wojcicki (and co-founder Linda Avey, who has since left the company), you can now get access to your genetic information with the company’s “at home DNA test”. It’s no secret that our genes affect our current and future health; 23andme makes genetic information affordable. A simple saliva test can detect 118 traits and diseases, including diabetes, breast cancer, heart attack, and Parkinson’s disease — and assess your probability for developing them and thus preventing them. Last year the government passed GINA, otherwise known as the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, so you won’t have to worry about your polymers leaking out to the public.

    Google It: Wojcicki is married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.”

  10. 5
    Microsoft has never been cool.
    Or even competent.
    Only big and rich enough to bulldoze through it’s total lack of talent.

    IBM literally gave away the key to the place when they let Gates keep the rights to DOS.
    DOS.
    The shittiest pile of shit ever shitted.
    But the only game in town and it inherited IBM’s market dominance.
    Since than Gates has been rich enough to copy or buy whatever seemed to be working.
    Poorly copied and unwisely bought, the reverse-Midas touch- but he has more money than God so he can keep playing that game.
    (please name ONE innovative successful thing Microsoft ever developed inhouse?)
    If only the guys who started Apple had been as shrewd at business as Gates or if only Gates had been a tenth as clever a programmer as the guys at Apple the world would be a better place.
    As it is Microsoft is proof that building a better mousetrap gets you jack squat and you can make total shit but as long as you own the market you can sell it.

  11. @5
    The Apple OS IS the greatest.
    On any given day Steve Jobs shits and flushes more innovation and talent and good ideas than Bill Gates has ever had in his entire life.

  12. None of you SLOGGERS have a clue!! Do you know what Google knows about you? Exactly what you told it/them!! If do not manage what gets “digital” then you deserve what you get.

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