Google has infiltrated
nearly every area of our digital lives. There's a strong possibility you use
Google products on a daily basis, from email and search to cloud storage.
This provides Google
access to a frightening amount of information about you. Google is aware of
your internet searches, the websites you frequent, the types of emails you get,
and even the products you're most likely to purchase.
Your digital life is
like an open book if you utilise Google's products. To secure your data, alter
the following six Google privacy settings.
1 - Pause
Voice Recording
If you use Google
Assistant, it records all of your voice requests as well as some private
conversations that you may not want it to hear. Long after you've had these
discussions, Google keeps a record of them.
It may sound
frightening to have your private talks saved on Google's computers, but that's
hardly the worst of it. Google occasionally compensates people for listening to
Google Assistant recordings and transcribing them into text many business listings.
This means that real
humans, not just AI systems, might be listening in on your Google Assistant
interactions.
If you don't want
Google to record your voice or audio activity, go to your Google Account
settings and disable speech and audio activity. To do so, follow these steps:
Steps 1 - On your computer or smartphone, go to accounts.google.com. If
required, sign in with your Google account.
Step 2 - At the top of the page, select the Data and Privacy option.
Step 3 - Scroll down to the History Settings panel and choose Web &
App Activity from the drop-down menu.
Step 4 - The page for activity controls should appear. Locate the area
labelled "See and erase activities" by scrolling down. Select the
Google Assistant symbol from the drop-down menu.
The activity page for
your Google Assistant should appear. You may watch and control your assistant's
activity from here.
·
Saving activity may be
found by searching for it and clicking on it.
·
On the following
screen, select turn off. To confirm, click Pause on the window that appears.
If the Google
Assistant symbol isn't shown in the See and delete activity area, you haven't
used Google Assistant previously. Before you may utilise this option, you must
first use the product.
2 - Disable
the Location History feature
If you often use
Google products, there's a good possibility Google keeps a record of where
you've been. Google is also aware of the dates and lengths of your visits to
these places.
As long as your gadget
is with you, the firm keeps track of the areas you've visited. You don't even
need to utilise a Google product to have your device tracked. Aside from the
possibility of a Google privacy breach, keeping such data on hand may be a
security concern. If someone had your Google account password, they might find
out where you've been for the past year or more business listings.
Visit
maps.google.com/timeline to learn how much location data Google has on you.
Simply stop your
location history if you don't want Google to know where you've been. To do so,
follow these steps:
Steps 1 - Go to accounts.google.com.
Step 2: Go to Data and Privacy > History Settings > Location
History, then turn off Location History.
Step 3 - Read the prompt and press pause to prevent Google from tracking
and preserving your location data.
3 - Put a
stop to YouTube's history
Because YouTube is
owned by Google, you can expect it to retain a detailed record of everything
you do on the network. This includes the kind of videos you view and the
searches you conduct.
Of course, Google
maintains that it only utilises this data to better your experience with its
services. It may, for example, offer advertisements depending on what else
you've seen.
By stopping YouTube
history, you can prevent Google from keeping track of what you do on the site.
To do so, follow these steps:
Steps 1 - Go to myaccount.google.com for more information.
Step 2 - Tap Turn Off under Data & Privacy > History Settings
> YouTube History.
Step 3 - Read the prompt and press pause to stop Google from recording
your actions and uploading them to YouTube.
It's important to keep
in mind that pausing your YouTube history may have an influence on the quality
of your suggestions and your entire YouTube experience free business listings.
4 - Disable
ad personalization
Ads account for the
majority of Google's revenue. The corporation puts a lot of money into its
advertising effort to keep the income flowing. This entails installing a vast
network of data extraction technologies to create user profiles.
These identities are
used by the firm to offer you with tailored adverts. If you're wondering why
you're seeing baby diaper advertising just a few days after having a baby, it's
because Google has been keeping track.
Go to
adssettings.google.com to find out how much advertising power Google has over
you.
Google may know your
marital or parental status, music preferences, and even the type of work you
perform based on your interactions with their products. This is how Google is
able to give you adverts that appear to have come straight from your head.
If you wish to put a
stop to it, follow these steps:
Steps 1 - Go to adssettings.google.com to learn more.
Step 2 - On the top of the page, look for a toggle switch labelled Ad
Personalization Is On. To activate a confirmation popup, toggle the switch.
Step 3 - To turn off ad personalisation, click Turn Off on the popup
that appears.
Scroll down to the
section titled how your advertisements are tailored on the advertising settings
page for additional fine-grained control. This section is a collection of
Google's best guesses about your interests. Keep an eye out for any that
appears overly intimate or invasive. To unlink a topic from your Google
account, click on it and then tap Turn off.
5 - Turn off
Gmail tracking
At least some of the
emails you get will track you if you use Gmail (or any other email provider).
Tracking tactics are commonly used by email marketers to follow up on the
responses to their emails.
While this appears to
be normal, it has an unpleasant quality to it. Many advertisers employ email
tracking tactics like "pixel tracking," which disclose more of your
data than you would expect.
Email marketers may
learn the following just by reading a single email:
·
Your exact location.
·
The device you use to
access your mailbox.
·
The links you click
within an email.
·
The time you read an
email.
·
The number of times
you've read a particular mail.
This information is
frequently used by email marketers to customise their services, but it may also
be used maliciously. Email monitoring is a security and privacy concern.
Fortunately, email tracking on Gmail can be disabled.
To do so, follow these
steps:
Steps 1 - Open the Gmail app on your phone or computer.
Step 2 - On the upper left corner of your app screen, click the menu bar
icon.
Step 3 - Scroll down to Settings and press it.
Step 4 - To apply the adjustments to a Gmail address, tap on it.
Step 5 - Scroll down to the Images menu item on the settings page.
Step 6 - On the popup that appears, tap it and select Ask before showing
external photos.
To trace your email
operations, pixel tracking monitors traffic to a discreetly attached graphic.
The approach is rendered worthless when images are disabled.
You may still view
photographs in your email by clicking on them when you want to.
6 - Put a
halt (pause) to all web and app activity
Pausing all site and
app activities will do the trick if you want to be as anonymous as possible
when using Google's products. To do so, go to Data and Privacy > Web and App
activity > Turn off and then click on Pause on your Google account settings
page.
This will prevent
Google from collecting your information across nearly all of its online and
mobile products and services. This will stop all activity recording in Google
Search, Calendar, and Play Store, as well as Google Assistant, YouTube, and
Chrome.
Unfortunately, if you
rely on Google's ecosystem, stopping all activity history may cause you to lose
access to your digital life.
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