Here’s an excerpt from the official stament of google:

In an effort to provide you with greater transparency and control over their own data, we’ve built the Google Dashboard. Designed to be simple and useful, the Dashboard summarizes data for each product that you use (when signed in to your account) and provides you direct links to control your personal settings. Today, the Dashboard covers more than 20 products and services, including Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Web History, Orkut, YouTube, Picasa, Talk, Reader, Alerts, Latitude and many more. The scale and level of detail of the Dashboard is unprecedented, and we’re delighted to be the first Internet company to offer this — and we hope it will become the standard. Watch this quick video to learn more and then try it out for yourself at www.google.com/dashboard.

With this new release, once you are logged-in to any of the service google provides (gmail, google talk, docs etc) it keeps an eye to all of your behavior around 20 google services including, all your google search history (image, video, news) even youtube. Does this sounds nice? Well, if you’ll ask me – It could be but it has a half full / half empty benefits for users.

We are talking about people who keep their privacy to other people, one must realize that some individuals want to keep their “private search” towards themselves only… Alas, if they forgot to sign-out with their google account? (they usually do :D) and some curious cat type-in google.com/dashboard on tommy’s PC – Voila! she realize, Tommy the sheep is in fact Tommy the rabid dog in real life!

Are we on the same page our dear viewers?

Furthermore, unlike internet-browser wherein the user has the option to wipe out browsing details (via clear-history). Google Dashboard, has none… In fact, you can even expand the web-activity and see all the stuff you have been diddling months ago.

We do hope google will make an update to give some users the choice to clear the history on their dashboard account. Have a setting to erase all browsing details on a weekly/monthly/daily basis. Perhaps, add an option to “opt-out” google.com/dashboard when users specifically ask google dashboard not to record their browsing details at that moment. We aren’t saying we don’t trust google our records, but there are instances that shows how google could be a very good peeping tom/eavesdropper every once in a while. Right, from the mouth of Microsoft’s CEO.

(sources: official google blog)