Google Improves Privacy Controls with a New Google Dashboard

The Google Dashboard gives the users a snapshot of their account: everything Google knows about your interactions with them at one place. Google has today announced a major UI overhaul to the dashboard. This update will begin rolling out to all users starting next week.

Google states that this UI overhaul will allow the users to take better control over their privacy. This change in the design is based on various surveys conducted by Google and the feedback sent in by the users. This is not a minor change in design but a complete, ground-up renovation of the service.

Google Dashboard: Before (L) and After (R) the update.

The dashboard gives you statistics about your Google account and all it’s linked services: the number of mails you have in your Gmail inbox, the places you have visited while logged in to a Google account, your search history, the number of docs and photos you have and much more. The Google Dashboard started off in 2009 and has since been the one-stop solution for all your usage statistics. As seen in the comparison above, Google has introduced major changes which represent information in a more meaningful manner.

Also read: Making Google Ads more Relevant

New Google Dashboard Improves Privacy Controls

Google’s re-designed Google dashboard helps improve the way privacy controls are handled. In their blog, Google highlights some of their major privacy features:

Privacy control features on the Google Dashboard

• My Activity: A complete log of every interaction you have ever had with Google. This includes your YouTube videos, location history on Google Maps, search queries and much more.
• My Account: This feature of the Google Dashboard allows you to control what part of you information that you share with Google is public and what part of it is private.
• Takeout: Rebranded ‘Download your Data’, Takeout allows you to download a copy of all your data stored with Google. Not only can you download it, but you can also move it directly to services such as OneDrive and Dropbox. Google says users have downloaded about 1 Exabyte of data since the service started!
• Ads Settings: The Google Dashboard also allows you to take control of the ads that you see. Users can select the category of ads they prefer so that the content is more relevant.

To access your Google Dashboard, click here.

Also read – Things that Google knows about you.

Source: Google Blog