On Thursday, Google launched a new feature that aims to silence privacy advocates who have criticized the search industry’s data-collection and storage practices. If the initiative appeases the critics, other search engines could move to adopt similar strategies.
The initiative is called Google Dashboard. For Google users who have wondered what data is stored in conjunction with their Google accounts, Dashboard offers a new level of transparency. Google Dashboard lets users see what data the search engine is storing and offers some control over how it’s used. Users can even delete some data.
Google software engineer Alma Whitten, Google product manager Yariv Adan, and Google Vice President of Search Products and User Experience Marissa Mayer made the Dashboard announcement on the company’s blog.
Moving Beyond Privacy
The trio pointed to Google’s 11-year focus on building innovative products for users and how hundreds of millions of people are using those products around the world. Google, they wrote, is very aware of the trust that consumers have placed in the company and its responsibility to protect user privacy.
“In the past, we’ve taken numerous steps in this area, investing in educating our users with our Privacy Center, making it easier to move data in and out of Google with our Data Liberation Front, and allowing you to control the ads you see with interest-based advertising,” they wrote. “Transparency, choice and control have become a key part of Google’s philosophy and today, we’re happy to announce that we’re doing even more.”
Google Dashboard is the “even more.” It offers more transparency and more control. Google said the Dashboard is designed to be simple and useful. It summarizes data for each product that consumers use when they are signed in to their account and provides direct links to control personal settings.
Setting an Industry Standard
Google is the first Internet company…