Nowadays it is extremely common that, throughout the same day, you have used different Google applications, from your Gmail email to consulting an address on Google Maps. Or, simply, enter a term to find in its more than popular search engine. All this data is collected by Google , and as we can see, it can become a large amount of information. Luckily, the Mountain View company always makes it available to users, so that we can see and delete it if we wish.
Although it is true that Google collects a large amount of information about everything we do in its different applications and services, it is true that the company -at least- seems to be increasingly concerned about the privacy of its users . And part of that involves making the data you have about us fully accessible, and offering the ability to erase it. In fact, it is possible to find everything in one place, through our Google account page on the web.
Once we have logged in, we will see different sections and options, including a list of all Google services that we have subscribed to and the amount of storage capacity that we are paying through Google One.
To know all the basic concepts that Google knows about us, the information that we gave in the beginning when we created the account for the first time, we must click on Personal information , which we will find located on the left. We will see our name, date of birth, email address and our phone number, for example.
But if we want to start investigating more in depth, we must click on Data and personalization , which we will also find in the main menu. Suddenly we will access a large number of sections and features. But right at the top we will see a box labeled Activity controls : this is where we can access most of the data that Google has about us, which is divided into three main sections: Activity on the web and in Applications, Location History and YouTube History.
If we access each of them, we can activate the option to delete them automatically, or to Manage activity, consulting and deleting if we wish the activity that the system has previously registered. Once inside, the information is displayed in a very intuitive and simple way, so that any inexperienced user will be able to check everything without too much complication. But what does each section mean?
Activity on the web and in Applications covers everything we search on the web every time we are connected to Google, the pages we visit, the Google documents we open, the applications we use through our Android device, and the commands voice that we have used through the Google Assistant. Ultimately, everything we do while connected to a Google product will be recorded here.
Location History , as the name suggests, includes records of our whereabouts over time. This data is extracted from the devices in which we have logged in, as long as we have the location registration option enabled.
Finally, we find the YouTube History , which comprises both our search history on the popular video platform and the views themselves.
As we have indicated, remember that you can activate the automatic deletion of the data that Google records about us. Or, well, we can eliminate them by selecting only those data that we do not want to show in this section.
