Salesforce.com Dashboard Visibility - they can see more than you think

When you create a Dashboard in salesforce.com, you may be under the logical impression that Users who view the Dashboard will only see data that their Profile permissions and Role allow them to see. After all, dashboards are generated off of custom reports in salesforce, and, the User can only see the data on a Report that they are allowed to see.

However, Dashboards are different. Dashboards allow users to see everything that the Dashboard itself can see. You can, of course, place your Dashboard in a folder that a User can't get into, and that will work fine to restrict them. But, if they have access to the folder, then the Dashboard will show them all. If the User clicks on the Dashboard item to view the underlying report, however, they will only see the information on that report that they are allowed to see based on permissions and their role in the heirarchy.