How to choose what you share with Google

Google’s decision to unify 60 of its services under one privacy policy has set off renewed interest in how, exactly, Google account holders have their privacy settings configured. The data integration component of the company’s new policy governs mostly what your Google accounts share with each other, and can’t be configured service by service. But Google users have control over some of what they share with the company itself through their accounts. The search giant offers a couple of options on what information is associated with any given Google account. You can get an overview of all the data Google associates with your account by looking at the “Dashboard” option on your main Google account page. There’s a lot of information on this page, such as Android devices associated with the account, calendar information, contact information, Gmail history and records of activity on Google Music, Google Talk, Google Reader, Google Voice and social connections through Google contacts and chat. You can edit some account preferences through this page, though other information, such as what Android devices are associated with your account, can’t be edited.