September 07, 2020
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0Google Data Tracking: How to Track Users on The Network
Today, almost everyone has a Google account. It can be used for purchasing software, sending email, and other services. However, not everyone knows what Google data tracking is.
In our blog, we have already written about how Google Chrome Tracks Private Internet Use. Of course, no one expected that the incognito mode is completely unsafe.
The search giant has all actual data about your internet movement. It includes the search history, your account data, location, queries. Such information helps to improve the working process with the Google services and show you the specific ads. At the same time, you will probably be surprised at how easily Google can access all the information it receives about you.
Read the article The Social Media Giants Age: How Your Data Makes Them Money. Protect yourself in the Internet space.
Some people may not pay attention to this or care about it at all, but many individuals do not like that Google interferes with their privacy.
In this article, you will learn how to reduce the amount of available information and find out what Google collects.
You can read more about online surveillance in the article We Should All Be Concerned About Surveillance Online.
Why does Google collect user data?
Google is watching us, and it’s been no secret for a long time. It monitors both our location and all actions on the internet. You may have noticed that if you search the internet for information about a product or read an article about it, you will immediately be shown corresponding ads on YouTube. If Google didn’t collect data about its users, these ads wouldn’t be personalized and therefore wouldn’t work.
On the one hand, it seems that there is nothing wrong with all this. So Google collects data about us – what should we do, not use the company’s services? After all, this makes your online experience more interesting and useful: you get information about what is most likely to interest you.
But if you consider incidents that have happened like the inadvertent indexing of private Google Docs, doubts creep in: can someone other than Google get data about where you live and what you do? There are no guarantees, so you should take care of yourself.
What does Google know about you?
- Location history
The first and most important thing is your geolocation. Google can use it to track and record your location, and then offer you personalized ads based on this data. You can click on the link and be sure that Google remembers even places that you may have already forgotten about yourself.
- Search history and actions on the Internet
Google stores your search queries and the list of articles that you have read, the profiles of people in social networks whose pages you have visited.
- Information from your devices
Data about your contacts, your calendar plans, your alarm clocks, the apps you use, your music preferences, and even your battery level – this is just a partial list of data about you that Google collects from your devices to serve more relevant ads to you.
- Voice requests and smartphone voice control
If you are familiar with the phrase “OK, Google”, congratulations: your voice commands for controlling your smartphone, as well as voice search queries, are saved on Google servers.
- Advertising information about you
The main purpose of collecting data about users is to personalize ads, because this is how the company makes money. Luckily, you can find out what interests and preferences of yours are known to advertisers, and finally get rid of annoying ads for a product that you once viewed on the internet by accident.
- Photos from your phone
If you’re using an Android smartphone, your photos and videos may be already stored in Google cloud storage, and you don’t even know it, because auto-upload might have been enabled by default. Don’t rush to delete the Google Photo app — it won’t fix the situation. All your photos will continue to fly to the cloud, and in the event of a data leak, they may end up in the public domain. Google itself has provided instructions on how to disable auto-uploading photos and videos on different devices.
- Your cookies
Have you noticed how Google Chrome is consuming much of your computer’s resources? The browser collects data about you, works in the background even after it is completely closed, and stores your cookies.
It’s not just Google that follows you on the Internet. Almost everything related to the Internet or information technology is a threat. We’ve collected the main ones in the article The Myth of The Privacy.
How to prevent Google from tracking your online activities?
The best way to prevent surveillance is to choose a more reliable tool for working on the net. Unfortunately, Google does not have a good track record and increasingly confirms the insecurity of its use.
For all concerned, we suggest looking into the decentralized Utopia ecosystem. It is a peer-to-peer network with built-in messengers, emails, browser, wallet, etc. Everybody can use the ecosystem anonymously. Therefore, no one can track your actions or get access to your data.
What is a P2P Network? Learn all the advantages of this architecture and choose only reliable ways to access the internet space.
Now, let’s look at how to disable Google’s function of data tracking:
- Open “My account.”
- Click on the “Privacy” section.
- Choose “Actions in Google services.”
- Select “Check action tracking settings.”
- Choose the appropriate types of data and click on the specific one to disable the function of data saving.
Also, if you want to delete your online activities history, you should do the following:
- Choose “Manage history.”
- Open an additional menu.
- Click on “Delete by date” and one more time on the button “All time.”
Now, let’s check whether your location is displayed on the Network. If you want to check this information, do the following:
- Go to “Check activity tracking settings.”
- Click on “Manage history.”
- Disable the function of geolocation tracking by clicking on the specific icon.
Conclusion
As you can see, it is increasingly difficult to remain anonymous on the modern internet. Many sites independently or through intermediaries accumulate information about us.
As for Google, it provides the data collected and allows you to change the amount of information available. Keep in mind that the only way you can completely hide from Google is to delete your account forever.
How to use Protected Internet? Read the article and stay safe online!
