On Sundays I offer comments on some of the most interesting information technology stories that I have found on the web that week.  Please feel free to join in the discussion or suggest stories during the week.

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This week’s story is from BusinessWeek.com and it reports on exciting and unexpected release of Dashboard by Google.  This completely unprecedented privacy awareness tool will hopefully spark of trend among online purveyors of data mining and aggregation.  Give it a read:

businessweek.com – Google Dashboard: Control Panel for Your Data

Early this morning, Google is launching a new feature that lets you view what data is being stored on a range of Google services. Google Dashboard also will let you control at least some of that data and how it’s used by Google and even delete it.

For a collection of all the stories about this, check-out Google News’ coverage here.

Below is what it looks like for a nominal user.  You go to this link and log-in using your Google credentials.  It then builds a personal display or dashboard of what tools of theirs you use, what they know about your use of them, and how they got that information.  You may, as I was, be surprised at some of the information that they collected on your from many years ago and tools long gone cold.

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For thought, privacy is defined on Wikipedia like this:

Privacy (in Latin privatus ‘separated from the rest, deprived of sth, esp. office, participation in the government’, from privo ‘to deprive’) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. The boundaries and content of what is considered private differ among cultures and individuals, but share basic common themes. Privacy is sometimes related to anonymity, the wish to remain unnoticed or unidentified in the public realm. When something is private to a person, it usually means there is something within them that is considered inherently special or personally sensitive. The degree to which private information is exposed therefore depends on how the public will receive this information, which differs between places and over time. Privacy can be seen as an aspect of security — one in which trade-offs between the interests of one group and another can become particularly clear.

While I know that there are really no “rights to privacy” specified in any US founding documents, the principle and expectations are clear from the public.  I also know that the web works best when it is tailored to your individual interests, preferences, and concerns.  To do the second, while protecting the first is a tight walk on a mile high balance beam.  I applaud Google for giving users the ability to help them balance these two polarities while tipping the scales in the direction of your preference by giving you a way to see what they know about you and correct/fix it.  While no one is suggesting that this is the final chapter in this meme of the Internet Age, a titan like Google making a stride like this towards the individual is a great step in the right direction.  Thank you Google for Dashboard

You can log-into your own Google Dashboard at this link.

What do you think about this topic?  Do you agree or disagree with me? Do you have a recommended news story for next week? Please share your ideas below.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for November 8, 2009  by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credits: easyhealth.org.uk and Google.com

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