What does Google know about me?

Most internet users search for information with the Google search engine. This is also known as ‘Googling’. This allows Google to know which searches someone has made and which websites they visit. This data gives Google a good picture of its users.

Google doesn’t just have a search engine. Video site YouTube, browser Chrome and mail service Gmail, for example, are also from Google. Through these services, data is collected about the users. For example, Google keeps track of which YouTube videos users watch and what they searched for. These activities are stored in their Google account. For some services it is necessary to have an account. Think of Gmail to read mail or Calendar to view appointments.

Google users can see what data the company keeps.

• Open a browser.
• Go to google.com and log in if you aren’t already.
• Click the icon with your initials or profile picture at the top right.
• click on je Gmanage oogle account.
• Click in the left menu Data and Personalization.
• click on Manage your activity options.
• Google bundles the stored information into different categories. Think of YouTube history and Web & app activity. Click under a category on Manage activity to see all related actions.
• Isn’t it nice that Google knows certain information? Remove the activities from the overview. Click behind the activity on the icon of three dots > remove > OK.

Viewing the My Activity page can be confronting. Suddenly it is black and white what you do online and what Google knows about you. Fortunately, you can determine per component whether data is saved.

• Click in the left menu Data and Personalization.
• Under ‘Activity options’, click Manage your activity options.
• Decide what data you want to save. User activity is tracked when the slider behind the feature turns blue. Click on the slider if you do not want this. The slider turns gray. For example, click the blue slider behind ‘Web and app activities’ so that the sites you visit, among other things, are not saved.

Google doesn’t display all activities in My Activity. For example, managing activity options also included keeping track of the smartphone’s location history. This information can be found elsewhere.

• Click the icon with your initials or profile picture at the top right.
• click on google account.
• Click in the left menu Data and Personalization.
• Under ‘Activity & Timeline’, click My activity.
• Click in the left menu Other Google activity.
• Here is a whole list of data that is also kept and can be viewed further. For example, click View timeline to see where you’ve been with a device signed in to Google.