Google may be collecting much more data and personal information about you than you think. Every search you do and every video you watch on YouTube, Google is monitoring. Google Maps even keeps track of all the places you go, the route you take to get there, and how long you stay, regardless of whether you have an iPhone or Android. It can be revealing and possibly a bit unsettling to find out everything Google knows about you .
Since 2019, Google has made changes to how location data is collected and the options you have to control it. This includes auto-delete controls, which allow users to automatically delete their location data on an ongoing and secure basis, and an incognito mode in Google Maps, which allows people to navigate and get directions without Google saving that information.
What does Google know about me?
Google most likely knows your name, what your face looks like, your date of birth, your gender, your other email addresses you use, your password and phone number. Some of this appears as public information (not your password, of course). Here’s how to see what Google knows about you :
1. Open a browser window and go to your Google account page.
2. Type your Google username (with or without “@gmail.com”).
3. On the menu bar, choose Personal Information and review that information. You can change or remove your photo, name, birthday, gender, password, other email addresses and phone numbers.
4. If you want to see what information about you is publicly available, scroll to the bottom and select Go to About Me.
5. On this page, each line is labeled with a person icon (meaning that information is visible to everyone), a buildings icon (visible only to your company), or a lock icon (visible only to you). ). Select an item to choose whether to make that information public, semi-public, or private. There is currently no way to make your account completely private.
Google knows what you do even if you are offline
Be careful, the fact that you set Google not to track your online activity does not necessarily mean that you have closed your data to Google completely. Google has admitted that it can track your physical location even if you turn off location services using information collected from the Wi-Fi network you use and other wireless signals near your phone. Also, just like Facebook has been doing for years, Google can track you even when you’re not logged in.
Not to mention that there are apparent contradictions between Google’s statements on privacy issues. For example, Google admitted to scanning the Gmail messages of millions of users to compile a list of their purchases despite confessing in 2018 that no one in the company read private emails.
