Privacy in the digital age is a matter of some concern. One of the things about electronic files is that they’re easy to duplicate and transfer. And lots of companies are storing lots of personal information. After all, they’re using it to market goods and services to you. It’s big business.

That’s why Google’s recent move toward transparency is a big deal. Miguel Helft wrote an article in The New York Times about it. The announcement came at a privacy conference in Spain earlier today. Google will be offering a new service (how many times have I written that in blog posts this year?) called Google Dashboard. All of the information you’ve supplied in your various Google service accounts will be listed there, including Gmail, Picasa, Checkout, Reader and others.

Actually, as Helft pointed out, Google Dashboard isn’t all that revolutionary, because that information was available to the user through the account settings pages on the individual services. Now, however, it’s all in one place. As Chef Tell used to say, “Very simple, very easy.”

It’s interesting to note that Dashboard only includes the information for accounts you have to log in to. So if you want to know what cookie information the company has for you, you’re out of luck. It also won’t reveal your search history.

According to Helft, the move has done little to satisfy some privacy advocates, who are still concerned with the way Google tracks users. In addition, many worry about how long that information is kept. Other privacy organizations applaud the move as a step in the right direction. Of course, Google and Facebook, another company that recently made its handling of user data more transparent, are only two organizations that track user data and keep that information on file.

What do you think? Did Google make the right move, or is this just a bone it’s throwing to privacy advocates to make them back off?

For more on Google and related topics, take a look at these articles:

How Google Works
How Internet Cookies Work
Can the government see what Web sites I visit?