I wouldn’t be surprised if one day I hear Google has taken over the world or is going to be the ‘Skynet’ or the ‘Supreme Chancellor Palpatine’ of earth. I have heard stories about identity thefts or conspiracy theories like the CIA tapping personal information like bank accounts, phone records and not to mention the number of movies on this theme. Till recently I believed this is possible only for a high profile security agency or for an expert hacker. Only till I saw Google dashboard.
I read about Google Dashboard in a technical article two days back. It says “I already knew that I use a ton of Google services and they know a lot about me, so seeing it all in one place was more entertaining than scary”. I too didn’t expect it to be this scary. When visited the page, I felt like discovering me all over again and found out many thing which I never noticed doing before. Dashboard contain all the information about my Google account, Gmail account, Blogger account, calendar, contacts, docs, finance, social networking, latitude, search/web history, wave and the list goes on and on. Any person who can log in to my Google dashboard can easily get to know me, even more than I know about myself, like my account details , my schedule, my contacts, the documents I was working on, my financial portfolio, my friends, my location and even I do daily in the internet.
On the positive side (for Google lovers), dashboard is one big help. There is now a single place where you can manage all your Google accounts with easiness. Also, it provides a simple solution to find out what we are doing in the internet.
No matter whether you think this is a boon or a curse, it really made me think how much personal information I can safely put in the internet, if I am concerned about my privacy.
Links
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/transparency-choice-and-control-now.html
http://www.google.com/dashboard
I read about Google Dashboard in a technical article two days back. It says “I already knew that I use a ton of Google services and they know a lot about me, so seeing it all in one place was more entertaining than scary”. I too didn’t expect it to be this scary. When visited the page, I felt like discovering me all over again and found out many thing which I never noticed doing before. Dashboard contain all the information about my Google account, Gmail account, Blogger account, calendar, contacts, docs, finance, social networking, latitude, search/web history, wave and the list goes on and on. Any person who can log in to my Google dashboard can easily get to know me, even more than I know about myself, like my account details , my schedule, my contacts, the documents I was working on, my financial portfolio, my friends, my location and even I do daily in the internet.
Video about Google Dashboard
I also knew that Google ‘knew’ many things about me. But seeing all of it in one location is scary. I know people who store confidential data like their bank account numbers, passwords etc in their Gmail account because they ‘know’ it’s safe and globally accessible. But, all one need is a simple password for your Google account and the consequences can be disastrous. The extra level of protection offered by Google is asking your password, one more time.On the positive side (for Google lovers), dashboard is one big help. There is now a single place where you can manage all your Google accounts with easiness. Also, it provides a simple solution to find out what we are doing in the internet.
No matter whether you think this is a boon or a curse, it really made me think how much personal information I can safely put in the internet, if I am concerned about my privacy.
Links
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/transparency-choice-and-control-now.html
http://www.google.com/dashboard
2 comments:
A get this recurring feeling that someday we will all end up inside a matrix like environment with our online lives. We will not know what is real or unreal when served to us by a "trusted" source a.k.a Google.
See the movie Surrogates, a scary future to live in...
Yeah, I saw that movie.. really scary.. :) But I think we all will adapt. Cos, think about what we would have said if some one told me about the internet and how things are done now like internet banking or paying bills etc some 10years back. scary.. ;)
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