My Google Dashboard is not as cool as my FBI File

The good news in looking through my Google Dashboard is that overall is a dull testament to my lack of Google use and that it is not like looking at my FBI file, if anything my FBI file is really cool – it is amazing what people will say about you for a federal background investigation. If my Google dashboard was my FBI file – I would be as dull as ditch water, and not have to worry about anything.

One of the reasons I am dull is that I am also aware of what I am doing online, most of my public information is just that, things I don’t mind talking about in public. My Google Dashboard reflects that dullness, which is good, and employers will not see much especially under my Google Alias. More of us need to be aware of what we are saying in public, for example when we blog, when we talk on Facebook, or what information that we turn over to companies. Facebook would be a far more interesting dashboard to read than my very dull Google one. Although I am surprised that my Orkut account from three or four years back is still there, and there are 16 other applications that are not integrated into the dashboard yet.

If you are worried about what Google knows about you, this is a great way to see what Google does know, but it is more a directory of what products and services you use, or are linked to your Google account. For some people they might be very interested in this, for others not so much. What I was glad to see is the ability to set up privacy settings for each individual account, and while few will go to that length, if you want to do something and keep others from seeing all that there is to see, you can reset your privacy settings on just about every Google product that you are using. It is also a very good idea to turn off browsing history, for those 2 AM quiet surfing moments that we all have in our lives, some things just do not need to be tracked.

There is a wealth of information here, like learning how to export all your friend connect members, to seeing which sites have access to your account, one of these surprised me because I no longer use it.

In all interesting viewpoint into the things I connect to with Google – but then I am not a heavy Google products user, there are things missing like Google Wave, and I would like to know what those other 16 items are. Not nearly as interesting as my FBI file – but cool all the way around, and it would be interesting to see if other sites will adopt and develop something similar. My Facebook account would be more interesting, but this is a good start.

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(Cross-posted @ TechWag)