Friday, November 13, 2015

Google's New About Me Tool Give You More Control Over The Personal Info You Share The World


Google has launched a new tool called About me that lets you see, edit, and remove the personal information that the company's services show to other users. Google confirmed to VentureBeat that the feature started rolling out to users this week. Google's various products and services (Gmail, Hangouts, Google Maps, Inbox, Google Play, YouTube, Google+, and so on) sometimes ask you to share certain personal information. These details are then shown to other users who interact with you or search for you. Until now, all of this was stored in Google+, assuming you created an account. But Google+ is no longer a requirement for Google's services, and so the company needs a new solution, and ideally one that isn't public by default.

Features of the new Google About me are very similar to Facebooks privacy options but seems very basic as of now.

Birthday :



Interestingly, I also couldnt remove my birthday. All I could do was hide the year.

Add Info :


Clicking the red plus + button on the About me page shows you exactly which details Google wants you to add: Work and personal contact info (phone number, email, and address), education (what schools you went to), work history (what companies you work for, have worked for, and where), places (where you live, have lived, and have visited), and sites (social media and other webpages). If that sounds familiar, thats because this is basically what Google+ asks you for.

Indeed, this is Googles way of keeping track of your personal information without forcing you to use Google+. That said, if you have a Google+ account, this is the same set of details. If you add or remove content on Google+ or on About me, the changes will be reflected on both.


Here I Enter Sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blog




People Who Can See This Data :


The About Me page also gives users the option of specifying the category of people who can see their data. Users, for instance, can choose to let only those in their immediate circle or extended circle see certain data elements. Or they can set up a customized list of people who are allowed to view their personal information. In addition, users have the option of making the information completely private if they want to.

Privacy checking :

A "Privacy Check" option on the About Me page lets individuals see and adjust the data that Google uses to deliver targeted advertisements. By clicking through the options on Privacy Check, users can get a complete listing of their interests, as deduced by Google from their activities and interactions on Google sites, like the kind of videos they watch on YouTube. They can then control the ads they want delivered on their Google accounts, across all devices, by simply checking or unchecking the box next to each interest. Plus, people have the option of adding new interests so Google can deliver ads that are relevant to those interests.

In addition, the Privacy Check feature allows individuals to decide the tabs that are visible to people who might visit their profile pages on Google sites. For example, by checking or unchecking the box next to each item, an individual can decide whether to give visitors the option of seeing their photos, reviews or YouTube videos.

Included in the many controls available on Google's new About Me tool is an option that lets users choose the extent to which they want their experience personalized on each Google site. Individuals can view the broad criteria that Google uses for personalization purposes, such as their search and content browsing history, their location history and their YouTube watch history. A "Manage Activity" option gives people the ability to delete, update or block any of the items from being used to deliver a personalized experience.









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