All our lives are online.
Find out what information Google has about you and how to change or adjust these settings to improve your privacy on the network.
Do you have a minimal idea of everything Google knows about you? It is possible that Google knows you better than your parents.
The world’s most used search engine has a wide variety of information about its users: from the areas like the frequent areas they are visiting, the music they like, etc.
Every minute 3.5 million searches are performed on Google, imagine that all the data is collected by the company. To this, we add the details that we recorded when we are using Google Maps or Youtube.
Being aware of the data that Google has access will help us to protect our privacy. While it is impossible to escape the control of the technological titan, there are few settings that we have to configure in order to restrict Google from having access to our private information.
Activities that Google know About us and Settings to Improve our Privacy on Google
Your activity
Google constantly analyzes the searches we do to offer a more personalized experience. This is not limited to the information we require directly from the search engine: it also takes into account the data we provide through other company apps.
- How to check it?
Make sure you’re signed in to your Google account and go to the “Personal information and privacy” section and click on the “My Activity” section. You’ll find a breakdown with all the content you’ve searched for, and you can filter it by periods, whether it’s weeks, months, or all times.
- How to disable it?
Go to “My account activity controls” in the left sidebar. Click on “Web and App Activity” and turn it off by clicking on the blue tab on the right.
In case you want to delete your previous activity record from Google, go to the “My Activity” section again, and click on the three vertical points located in the top bar; Select “Delete activity by” and choose the period you want to delete.
You can use the same method to check the information Google has about your voice searches.
Your Location
Google knows where you have been at any moment. Not only will the ones you have registered appear, but also those that Google has deduced thanks to your location.
- How to check it?
Go back to the “My account activity controls” section in the left sidebar. There you will find a section called “Location History”; Click on “Manage activity” and you will find all the places you have visited.
- How to disable it?
In the “Activity Controls” section, turn off the blue tab next to “Location History”.
To delete your location history, click on the trash symbol located at the bottom right of the map.
Your activity on Youtube
Google knows what content you are looking for on YouTube and what videos you are watching or watched.
- How to check it?
As with search and location history, you have to go to the “Activity Controls” section and click on the “YouTube Search History” and “YouTube Play History” sections; This information also appears in the general section of your activity.
- How to disable it?
Disable the blue tabs located next to each section.
Information from other devices
Google can collect all the information you have on your device: contacts, calendars, apps, music and even the use of your battery.
- How to check it?
Go to the “Activity Controls” section and look for the section “Information from other devices”.
- How to disable it?
As with all other functions, you can disable the blue tab.
Your interests
Google constantly analyzes user searches to find out which ads to offer you that may interest you. Based on this you can even estimate your gender and age.
- How to check it?
Under “Activity Controls” below you will find a section called “Related settings”; Click on “Ads”.
You will be given a list with all the topics that Google considers that you are interested in. Below you will find your profile, where your gender and age comes out.
- How to disable it?
You can turn off custom ads by completely sliding the blue tab at the top of the section next to “Ad customization.”
If you just want to edit the type of ads suggested by Google, remove the interests you do not like from the list and add the ones you find convenient.
Quite a lot right? I think Google knows us better than our friends. If you still want Google to know all about yourself then no need to worry about privacy.
In case, if you think this is a lot of information that Google is knowing about you, then you have to be quick in changing all these settings.
In this way, we can improve our online privacy from Google.
I hope this article helped you to increase your security online. If you have any queries regarding any of the above settings, let us know in the comment section below. We will get back to you as soon as possible to solve all your queries.
Would you like to add any other settings to this story? Then write them in your valuable comments and we will include them in this article quickly.
Which settings are the most important to us in the above-mentioned points in order to improve our Security from Google?
