Google plans new dashboard to help users control data privacy
Google is launching a mobile-friendly version of its dashboard to make it easier to control how the company uses private data, such as internet history and mobile users' physical locations in Google Maps. The redesigned service will be easier to use on touchscreens, making it more suitable for all devices, including mobiles and tablets. There will also be changes to Google's approach to data relating to personalised ads. The company has recently been researching what customers want from privacy, conducting over 4,000 interviews with people on the subject in 2016.

If you want to understand and tweak how Google uses your private data, the internet giant hopes to make it a bit easier soon with a new dashboard that works better on mobile devices.

The dashboard already lets you see what data Google stores about you, like websites you've opened with the Chrome web browser and destinations that Google Maps thinks you've visited. And you can nudge Google's approach to personalized advertisements.

The mobile-friendly version of the site will arrive "in coming days," Google product manager Greg Fair said in a blog post Friday.

"We redesigned Dashboard from the ground up. The most important change was to improve usability on touchscreens, ensuring Dashboard works well on any device. We also worked to make it easier to see an overview of the Google products you use and your data in each of them. And we made the process for downloading data much easier," Fair said. "It should always be easy for you to make meaningful decisions about your data -- and we decided we could do better."

Online privacy is a big deal, especially with companies like Google, Facebook, Apple , Amazon and Microsoft offering ever more personal services and trying to target ads at just what you're interested in.

Google is trying to get a better handle on what we all want when it comes to privacy, though. It interviewed more than 4,000 people in 2016 to try to learn what's needed.