Follow our easy steps to help you temporarily or permanently delete your Google data and manage your privacy online.
Posted on July 15th, 2019
Most people know by now that anytime they search for something in Google, the search is saved and used to serve them ads. What is less well known are the different tools that Google has at its disposal to vacuum up data: Gmail, Google Maps, Google Drive, Google Calendar, YouTube, and especially Chrome. While the fact that all these products collect user data may be an unpleasant surprise to many, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is effectively an advertising company, with 83 percent of its revenue from ad placements in 2018.
In an effort to scrape even more targeted user data, last year Google began automatically logging users into Chrome when they logged in to Gmail. This is significant because Google can collect a much larger portion of data when you are logged in. While the easiest solution to avoid having Google sweep up all your data is to avoid using their products, that is not possible for everyone. You may own a Chromebook, which is only compatible with the Chrome browser. You might be locked into Google products through work, or maybe you simply value the user experience of having your email, online cloud storage, and calendar all linked together. For these users, there are some simple steps you can take that will improve your privacy and limit the amount of data that Google can collect.
[Continue reading here for instructions]