By Dennis D. McDonald

Every now and then I get an email from Google telling me to check my security information; they call it a “security checkup.” It’s a good service and I always do the check up but at the same time it’s a reminder that, if you have a Google account, They Know Who You are.

Here’s one of the things I learned from a recent checkup, the machines I have that have acessed my Google account recently:

The report also provides a small amount of drilldown information. Here’s what the security checkup says about my Linux machine:

Now, I admit that I appreciate this information; it does give me an opportunity to check to see if anyone else is using my Google account. that’s a good thing. At the same time, I wish I knew how Google is using this information and what, for example, they track for all those cheap Chromebooks that are going into schools.

I don’t consider myself to be a privacy nut. While I don’t use Facebook there’s already a ton of stuff about me and my family on the web, and I understand that. Costs versus benefits, they say.

Still, in the interest of transparency, I really do wish I knew what Google was doing with this information it derives about my online behavior. I don’t mean just tracking when someone unknown uses my Google account, but rather, what Google itself does with my data. In the interest of transparency, is that too much to ask?

Copyright (c) 2016 by Dennis D. McDonald. My interests interests include project, program, and data management; market research, digital strategy, and program planning; change management; technology adoption; books, movies, & photography. Current focus: big data project planning & management. Selected documents and document collections in .pdf format are here. Follow me on Linkedin, Twitter, and Google+. Email me at ddmcd@outlook.com.