It is known that the American search engine collects information about users and their actions. But what exactly does Google know about you? How to delete information about yourself and your actions from the Google server? Information in our article.
What Google knows about you
To analyze the collected data you need to go to this address. According to Google, this information is available only to the account holder, which is indicated on the website.
For mobile phone On Android, the list of recorded user actions is impressive. Everything is taken into account: from watching videos on YouTube to opening applications.
Open More Google Actions and select Location History (manage history hyperlink).
All your movements around the world over the past few years are collected here.
How to delete Google user statistics
From the menu on the left, select Select a deletion option.
Select the period and criteria for selecting the actions to be deleted and click the Delete button.
How dangerous is Google surveillance?
It is clear that when using the services of any company, you trust it to collect certain data about yourself. If you want to prevent the pages you visit from being recorded, use secure browsers or Incognito mode. You can additionally disable the collection of movement information on your phone.
It’s worth looking at what the American service knows about you to understand the importance of ensuring the security of your account. If you have a simple password, change it to a more complex one. Be more responsible about your safety. But if anything happens, we now know where to erase all the accumulated information.
The practical benefit of such surveillance is the ability to control your child’s account if there is access to it. You can see what videos he watches, what sites he goes to. At the same time, there is no serious violation of the privacy of correspondence. Google will record that you used the VKontakte application, but will not be able to read the messages.
He does not collect information for sale or, especially, in the interests of some universal conspiracy.
Everything is much more prosaic: personal information helps determine the tastes and habits of users. To do this, Google stores data about gender, age, interests, as well as user search queries, including voice ones.
For example, after analyzing the requests of an individual person, search system will offer goods or services related to the object of previous requests. For example, if a user was looking for where to buy a smartphone, then contextual advertising will offer accessories for this phone model.
Another subject of controversy is the collection of information about the location of its clients by the “good corporation,” which forces especially nervous ones to constantly turn off the transmission of geodata.
Google collects data on the movement of users using their own smartphones: when using, for example, the service Google Maps the owner of the device gives away his location. The time during which a particular user was in a certain place, and even the speed of movement are recorded.
Thanks to this information, the search engine will return places that provide certain services closest to the user, again consistent with his interests.
Not everyone will like the fact that a huge transnational corporation has so much of their personal data. Of course, it is possible to disable some of the “tracking” services, but most are unlikely to give up, for example, watching videos on YouTube just so that Google does not recognize the user’s preferences.
One example of users outraged by the “violation of confidentiality” was Anton Burkov, who filed a lawsuit against Google because the corporation, in his opinion, read his personal correspondence. Burkov demanded 50 thousand rubles from the company. for moral damage. decided to recover the entire amount from the defendant, but Google's lawyers appealed the court's decision. As a result, the Moscow City Court rejected the company’s claim, obliging Google to pay 50 thousand rubles. However, the company can still appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
However, Google is far from the only company that accumulates the personal data of its customers.
Companies that “monitor” the users of their services also include , which recently came under a storm of criticism due to the huge amount of data collected latest version operating system from Microsoft - Windows 10.
How to approach the collection of data by organizations whose services are used by tens of millions of people every day is an open question. On the one hand, in the event of a software failure or data storage hacking by hackers, the scale of the “leakage” of personal information will be simply catastrophic: the confidential data of millions of people will become public knowledge, and the corporation that allowed the leak will be overwhelmed with lawsuits from indignant users. Of course, every company does everything possible to prevent such incidents.
On the other hand, the collection of personal data reduces the quality of the services offered to new level. This practice allows the average user to “surf” the Internet with much greater comfort, helps to separate the “wheat from the chaff” and generally speeds up the search for information.
It is worth noting that the privacy policy of each corporation that collects certain data about its clients specifies all the information that the user allows to be stored when confirming the conditions; If such an agreement seems unacceptable, there is always the opportunity to reject the terms of use.
An example of unauthorized access to users' personal information is the case of social network Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg's company experimented with the emotional state of users
In 2014, the company conducted an experiment to influence people's emotional state by filtering positive and negative posts in the feed without notifying its users.
This incident had a negative impact on the image of the corporation itself: the company had to create an internal commission on ethical and legal issues of experiments, and also retrained personnel in this area.
In general, we can say that there is nothing in the collection of personal data that could harm the average user: for the most part, this process is carried out to improve the quality of the services provided. So it’s too early to talk about “Big Brother.”
Google does not hide the fact that it will know, if not everything, then a lot about its users. Even when you created your account, you were warned that they would track your search history, YouTube views, audio information, purchases, contacts, and call data. But all this is spelled out in a multi-page agreement, which not everyone can read to the end.
Google explains that all this is done in order to adapt to users and make products more convenient. For example, provide customized offers, content or applications. But most importantly, the information is used to select the most tailored advertising for you.
Why Google Surveillance is Dangerous
One of the best ways to limit the data Google collects by default is because your personal information could fall into the wrong hands. And not only if someone hacks your account.
Your information may be leaked to the Internet. It's your fault
So, in July, the Yandex search engine indexed files from the service Google Docs, not protected by privacy settings. , listed in Google files Docs. The first thing users found through Yandex search was passwords. IN open access turned out to be passwords to personal and work accounts on social networks, to e-mail and other services. In addition, the documents revealed numbers electronic wallets. However, all password-protected documents in search results didn't show up. The leak occurred due to the negligence of the users themselves.
Your information may be passed on to strangers. Completely legal
The user agreement clearly states who Google can share your information with. confidential information:
- To private companies, if you have given your consent. Example from Google: “If you are with using Google Home contacted the driver call service, we will provide your address to this service only with your permission.”
- Google affiliates and other trusted companies and individuals to process on Google's behalf.
- Law enforcement agencies, security forces, FSB.
- Publishers, advertisers, developers. Example from Google: “We provide this information so that users can study trends in the use of our services. We also allow select partners to collect information from your browser or device through their own cookies and other technologies and use it to display advertising and evaluate its effectiveness.”
Why does Google track you?
Google Challenge, like any commercial structure in this world, make money. One way is to sell advertising more effectively. To do this, the service collects a huge amount of information about everything. After all, you register and use the product for free, but for every free product you have to pay, one way or another.
Excerpt from Google's user agreement:
How to get rid of Google tracking
If you're just fed up Google advertising, which offers you products tailored to your needs (you never know what and when you were looking for and don’t want to advertise it), then you can disable personalization. For this . But this does not mean that Google will stop collecting information on you. It will just be less of a bother.
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However, any user can block Google not only offer advertising, but also collect information.
So that Google stops tracking completely and completely(at least according to the parameters that are officially spoken about), it’s just that it’s now enabled by default.
If you are ready to provide information about your preferences to YouTube, but do not want to be intercepted, then the following instructions are for you:
To access your personal file, you need to log into your account,
Here you can find settings for search queries and viewed pages; places you have visited; information from devices; voice requests and commands; the video you searched for and watched on YouTube.
All data from your phone's microphone is stored. All you have to do is say “OK, Google” once, and everything that interests you will become known to advertisers.
When you take actions on Google services, we collect data about them. To learn more about what information we collect, why we do it, and how you can manage your information, read our Privacy Policy. It also explains why the shelf life different types data is not the same.
You can delete some data yourself at any time, others are deleted automatically, and we store others for a long time if necessary. If you delete any data, we will follow specific rules. As a result, your data completely disappears from our servers or is stored there only in anonymized form. How Google anonymizes data
What information do we keep until you delete it?
There are many tools that let you manage the data stored in your Google Account. In particular, you can:
- delete entries on the My Actions page;
- delete photos, documents and other content;
- remove various products from your Google account;
- Delete your Google account completely.
The data will remain in your Google Account until you delete it. If you use our services without signing in to your Google Account, you may also have the option to delete some information, such as information about your use of our services through a device, browser, or app.
Data that is stored for a certain period of time
In some cases, we do not provide the opportunity to delete any data, but store it for a certain period of time. The retention period for all types of information depends on the purpose for which it was collected. For example, so that service interfaces are displayed correctly on screens different devices, we can store browser height and width information for up to 9 months. Some data is anonymized during a specified storage period. For example, advertising data stored in server logs is stripped of the IP address after 9 months and the cookie information is removed after 18 months.
Information that is retained until your Google account is deleted
Some information allows us to better understand how we can improve our services and how users experience them, so we store it for as long as it lasts. Google account. For example, if you delete a specific Google search from your My Activity page, information about how often you search may be saved, but not what you searched for. Once your Google account is closed, information about your search usage frequency is also deleted.
Information that is stored for a long time for specific purposes
We retain some information for specific purposes for long periods of time as required by law or business requirements. For example, if Google makes a payment to you or accepts funds from you, the corresponding data is retained for as long as necessary for tax or accounting purposes. Some purposes for which data may be stored for a long period of time:
Secure and complete data deletion
Once a user has erased their Google Account, we immediately begin removing it from the service and all of our systems. First of all, we exclude any possibility of viewing data and using it to personalize your experience. Google services. For example, if you delete a video you watched on your My Activity page, YouTube will no longer be able to tell you when you stopped playing that video.
Next, we are launching a process to securely and completely remove data from our storage systems. Thanks to it, we can provide protection against accidental data loss and peace of mind for users. The entire procedure usually takes about two months. This often includes a period to allow data to be restored if it was deleted unintentionally. It usually lasts up to one month.
IN different systems Google uses different procedures to securely and completely delete data. In many cases, data is erased only after performing the operation multiple times. In addition, there may be slight delays so that in the event of an error the information can be restored. In other words, sometimes it takes longer than usual to securely and completely delete your data.
So that data can be restored if necessary, our services provide additional remedy protection – encrypted storage systems backup copies. These systems can store data for six months.
The data deletion procedures and timing described in this article may be affected by factors such as routine maintenance, technical issues, failures, and protocol errors. In order to quickly detect and eliminate such problems, we have implemented special solutions.
protection against fraud and other illegal activities;
Description
Ensuring the protection of users and others and Google from fraud and other illegal activities
Examples
Google suspects someone of ad fraud.
financial statements;
Description
Google's participation in a financial transaction, such as by making a payment to you or accepting funds from you. Long-term retention of information is often required for accounting purposes, dispute resolution, financial compliance regarding taxes, escheats, anti-money laundering, etc.
Examples
You purchase apps from the Play Store or make purchases from the Google Store
compliance with legal and regulatory requirements;
Description
Comply with legal requirements, court order or government agency requests, as well as enforce the Terms of Use or investigate possible violations thereof
Examples
Google gets subpoenaed
ensuring the operation of services;
Description
Support continuous operation our products
Examples
If you share your information with someone (for example, by sending an email) and then delete it from your Google Account, it will remain in the content you share with others
direct correspondence with Google.
Description
If you contacted by Google By contacting support, providing feedback or reporting an error, we may store information about it.
Examples
You've submitted a review in Gmail, Drive, or another Google app
Business details displayed on Google come from a variety of different sources. They’re meant to provide customers with the most complete and up-to-date information possible. The details associated with your business come from the information you provide when creating and updating a verified business listing, reports from users, and other sources.
Information in Google My Business
For example, if customers search for a restaurant you manage, they can find information you’ve added, such as when you’re open and where you’re located. They also might get information you haven’t added, such as a link to your menu or photos customers have uploaded of meals they’ve enjoyed. The combination of information provided by you and other sources lets customers make informed decisions about your location. Users may also find personalized recommendations and matches based on their preferences.
How Google sources business information
There are 4 main sources of information that you may find in your business listing:
- You: Information you've added about your business. You can add, edit, and remove this information as it changes to keep customers up to date and showcase your products and services. Learn how to manage your business information.
- Your website: Information from your business’s official website.
- Users: Information from people who use Google services. Google gets a wide variety of information about businesses from its users. This user-generated information includes reviews, popular times, and photos. Your Business Profile is updated when someone takes an action like leaving a review, uploading a photo, or reporting a problem.
- Third-party sources: Information from other places online. If Google finds information about your business that could be helpful to customers, it may be added to your listing. This can include links to restaurant menus, social profiles, hotel amenities, or booking/ticketing availability.
Information in local search results
Google uses business information to help surface relevant local search results across Google, such as in Google Maps and Search.
For example, if you own a hair salon, your business might appear in local search results for people who search for “salons near me” or “salons open now” because you’ve provided information that includes your address and hours.
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