Back in September, Google revamped its data and privacy Dashboard with a simpler, mobile-friendly design. Google is continuing that work today with a more personal Security Checkup feature. Additionally, there are new phishing protections in Chrome.
With the Google Dashboard, users can see data and information about the various Google services they use. Featuring useful stats, it also provides quick shortcuts to individual product settings. The interface is being redesigned today with a more mobile and touch-friendly design.
If you’re concerned about data people see when they google your name, you should check out a new section in your Dashboard, aptly named ‘Me on the Web’. It’s a one-stop shop for your online identity needs, Google says, stressing the section helps you “understand and manage what people see when they search for you on Google”. ‘Me on the Web’ features a useful at-a-glance overview of all the outbound links published on your Google profile, the stuff like your social profiles, YouTube and Flickr accounts and so on. There are also links to Google help files explaining how to manage your online identity and how to remove unwanted content.
More importantly, you can create custom search alerts for your own name to receive email notifications when your personal data is posted publicly. You can also set up additional alerts for your specific personal data, such as telephone number and address. In the example below, I’ve set up an alert for my author byline, allowing me to track in near-real-time when my posts go up or other people mention my name in references to my articles. You could have created those alerts before in Google Alerts, but now everything is in one place, which should appeal to non-techies.
