Google knows everything about you (almost)

May 25, 2016 12:45 pm | Updated 05:48 pm IST - Bangalore

BANGALORE, 16/03/2011: iTrans Technologies launched a new technology solution, in Bangalore, to track the movement of your bus on your mobile. All one needs is mobile. Send an SMS to a dedicated number tracking a particular Bus Route No. You will get an immediate response on the status of the bus whether it is stationary or moving, its location and the distance from your bus stop. You can get the location of bus on Google Maps.
Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE, 16/03/2011: iTrans Technologies launched a new technology solution, in Bangalore, to track the movement of your bus on your mobile. All one needs is mobile. Send an SMS to a dedicated number tracking a particular Bus Route No. You will get an immediate response on the status of the bus whether it is stationary or moving, its location and the distance from your bus stop. You can get the location of bus on Google Maps. Photo: K. Gopinathan

If you’ve been following this column over the last few months you’ve hopefully come to see that quite a lot of what we all do online is tracked and recorded in someway; by advertising companies, by ISPs, by websites and social media platforms.

But the company that probably holds the most information about you, by far, is Google.

How much does the Big G really know about you?

Quite a lot, is the short answer.

For example, Google has a record of every search you’ve ever made. Yes, Every Single Search. This includes voice searches and YouTube searches. So if you’ve ever searched for anything embarrassing (I know I have), it’s been recorded.

Thankfully, none of this stuff is saved for posterity (we hope) and you have almost complete control over your own data. This means that you can erase that embarrassing search history, you can choose what information is publicly available and you can delete all this data and close down your Google account if you so choose.

How you can find out what exactly Google knows about you and start locking some of this stuff down?

1. Sign in to your account

This might sound like a simple thing to do, but the number of people I know who haven’t done this beggars belief. You can view, change and control everything to do with your google account by signing in here – https://myaccount.google.com/.

2. View your Account Overview

This dashboard will show you pretty much everything you need to know about what information Google hold on you. It will show you how many devices you have connected to your account, the number of apps you’ve downloaded, how many photos you have and much more.

3. Manage your search history

By default Google turns on search history for your account. This means that Google keeps track of every single search you’ve made. This is where you can look at your search history and turn it off, if you want to.

4. Manage your location history

Google also tracks the different places you’ve been to and keeps a record of frequent places you visit. It uses this data to show you helpful Google Now cards like “Time to go home”, or “Leave for the office now.” Some of your location history could also be public, so it’s a good idea to take a look and lock it down.

5. Check your Ads Settings

Google uses the data it holds on you (or demographic information it guesses about you) to personalise the ads you see. This is turned on by default on your account and it’s a good way to see who Google thinks you are. If you’re happy with personalised ads leave this turned on.

Let me know how your Google account exploration goes and whether you come across any interesting nuggets of information in the vast trove of data you find on your Google account. I know I always find at least one interesting thing when I look through it.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.