If you are using a Google application, you are probably being tracked. Even if you’ve turned off location history in your Google account, you’re still not completely free from tracking the steps you take online. While disabling those settings seems like a one-size-fits-all solution, some Google apps still store your location data. By simply opening the Google Maps application or using Google search on any platform, your approximate location is recorded with a time stamp.
However, following an investigation by the Associated Press in 2018, Google has made it easy to control the location and other data that is saved, and that is deleted with functions such as Your data in Maps or in the Search bar, which provide access fast to your location controls. You just have to know where to look.
Keep spying on you even if you deactivate it
Disabling location history only removes from Google Maps’ timeline feature where you’ve been, which records your location with certain data at a certain time. Google’s support page on the matter says that even when turned off, “some location data may continue to be saved in other settings,” such as your web and app activity.
Google ensures that it uses this data to improve the quality of its services and offer more personalized and useful functions, and that this information is never shared with third parties or advertisers. But if you’re still not too sold on that, with a few more steps, you can generally prevent Google from knowing where you are 24/7.
Just keep in mind that disabling this default setting has some drawbacks. While Google’s settings may seem intrusive to some, it also helps create an ultra-personalized online experience , like helping people find nearby stores and bars, or viewing personalized ads. They help provide users with more relevant information rather than random information, according to Google.
Here’s how to actually disable Google tracking and what the results of doing so might be. To remove Google’s ability to record your location, here is what you should do:
Open Google.com on your desktop or mobile browser. At the top right, sign in to your Google account if you haven’t already. Select Manage your Google account. In the Privacy and Personalization box, select Manage your data and personalization. Scroll down to Activity controls and select Manage your activity controls.
There you will see a box called Web and App Activity. From there, you can disable it. A dialog box will pop up to make sure you understand what you are doing by disabling this setting.
What do you avoid with this?
Disabling this setting prevents Google from storing location markers associated with specific actions and stops the storage of information collected from searches or other activity. Turning it off will keep your approximate location and other places you go, like your home address, private.
