When you use Google to learn about the world, Google uses your searches to learn about you. Let’s take a look at the data it has on you.
Essential tools to secure your online activities
What does Google know about me?
Google doesn’t keep this info under lock and key. If you know where to look, you can view all of Google’s saved data on you. To do that, follow the steps below:
Open the Google Accounts page in a web browser and log in with your account details
Then click the Apps button in the upper right corner
Click Account
In the Privacy & personalization section, click Manage your data & privacy
Scroll down to the Ad settings and click Ad personalization
From the left sidebar, choose Manage Privacy.
This will show everything Google has on you based on your searches, YouTube history, and Gmail inbox.
Prevent Google from collecting this data
If you feel exposed, that’s understandable. Don’t panic! Luckily, you can edit your Google activity controls. Here’s how:
Open the Google Accounts page in a web browser and log in with your account details
Click on Data & Privacy on the left side of the new window
Scroll down to History Settings
Click My Activity to open the My Google Activity page
Then click any of the Web & App Activity, Location History, or YouTube History buttons on the new page. This should take you to the Activity controls page
Scroll to the bottom of the Activity Controls page and click See all activity controls
Here you can turn off web & app activity, location tracking, etc.
Done! Your future activities won’t be saved.
How do I delete previously saved activities?
The quickest way to get rid of your browsing activity is to use CleanMyMac X. With its Privacy utility, you can do that in just a few clicks. Here’s how:
Open CleanMyMac X
Choose the Privacy module from the left sidebar
Then click Scan and wait until the scanning process ends
After that, select the browsers you use. Now you may choose to remove all the locally stored items that remain after your browser(s) use.
Finally, click Remove.
How do I search privately?
If you’re worried that Google and other platforms know too much about you, the best thing to do is use a reliable VPN solution such as ClearVPN. Even though it can’t completely stop Google from accessing your data, it lets you hide your IP address, encrypt your internet traffic, and keep your browsing history private. This makes your online activities much safer.
Hope this how-to will help you solve tasks faster, and enjoy solving them, too! Check out more how-tos picked for you below.
