A new product that gives users a new level of insight into what the world’s biggest search engine knows about them was launched Thursday. Google Dashboard lets users see reports on the details Google has collected on them.

In a blog post, Google said the Dashboard is an improvement on past efforts like the Privacy Center to give users access to retained data. Dashboard is “an effort to supply you with greater transparency and control … (and) designed to be simple and useful,” the posting said.

“The Dashboard summarizes details for each product that you use (when signed in to your account) and provides you direct hyperlinks to control your personal settings,” Google wrote. At launch, Dashboard included 20 Google products, including Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Web History, Orkut, YouTube, Picasa, Talk and Reader.

Privacy Settings Hard to Find

While Dashboard offers a new level of user access to their goods, it’s additionally raising privacy

concerns about how secure the service is. “If you want to produce that stuff private — or just find out whether it’s even possible to prepare it private — you have to go deep into the settings of each Google app. whether you don’t already know where to go to change that setting, you may not get there,” complained Robert X. Cringley on InfoWorld.

Google’s programs contain scads of potentially damaging info about users. For instance, an exposition on the Dumb Little Man site details how a burglar could easily discover when a Google Calendar user is away from home just by looking at a public calendar and using a few easy research techniques. The author details his pursuit of one user like that:

“In literally 20 minutes, I now know the name, address, phone number, and schedule of that woman. whether I can do it, you can be … certain…

Original post by dhiram