CNN || Google releases Dashboard privacy tool

Ever wonder what information Google knows about you? With a click or two, now you can find out.

Google released a feature Thursday that lets users see and control data that the Web giant has collected about them. Called Google Dashboard, the service provides an online summary of a user's Google files -- Gmail, Google Docs, Picasa photos and so on -- by collecting pre-existing privacy controls in one place.

Dashboard users can review and delete recent Google searches, see recently opened and shared documents and survey their interactions with other Google-powered sites such as YouTube.

Google, which has come under fire from politicians and privacy advocates for its data-collection practices, announced the service with a blog post headlined, "Transparency, Choice and Control -- now complete with a Dashboard!"

"Over the past 11 years, Google has focused on building innovative products for our users," the company said in its official blog on Thursday. "Today, with hundreds of millions of people using those products around the world, we are very aware of the trust that you have placed in us, and our responsibility to protect your privacy and data."

The advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, which has been critical of the amount of personal data Google stores, called the dashboard a small step in the right direction.

"If Google really wanted to give users control over their privacy it would give consumers the ability to be anonymous from the company and its advertisers in crucial areas such as search data and online behavior," spokesman John M. Simpson said on the group's Web site.

"The Dashboard give the appearance of control without the actual ability to prevent Google from tracking you and delivering you to its marketers."