What would George Orwell think of Google Dashboard? | DVICE

Description

Thanks to Google, most people know who Eric Arthur Blair is. Doesn't ring a bell? You might know him better by his pen name, George Orwell. You know — 1984, Animal Farm? The question is, if he were alive today, what would he think of Google, and its power to spread information — sometimes very personal — to anyone who can type? Would he have a Facebook page or a Twitter account? Or would he be writing furiously (on paper), protesting that they're all evil forces of dystopian ruin?

In today's world of webcams, social networking and tweets, have we traded away our right to privacy in return for fun and convenience? And after willingly and knowingly surrendering our privacy online, do we have any right to know what someone is doing with our private information?

Rather than recount the entire history of civil liberties and the Web, let's consider a recent example. Google amasses huge amounts of personal information; in fact, it's pretty much their business model. More than a few people have wondered exactly what Google knows about them. To address the issue, possibly appease a few critics and maybe preempt legislation, last week Google unveiled Dashboard. It aggregates data that Google collects from services such as Gmail, Picasa Web Albums, Checkout, Reader, Web History, and YouTube. In other words, Google is letting you see some of what it knows about you. The advantage is that you can see this personal information, and adjust your privacy settings in Dashboard, rather than separately in the various accounts.

Dashboard only discloses data for accounts where a user must log in. Missing from Dashboard is any search records for users not logged in, or any cookie data (which Google uses to target ads). Google's argument is that cookie data is usually associated with

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