How much does Google know about you?

Tech giant Google collects a lot of your information — including your search history, your location, and voice searches to help improve its services and provide relevant ads.

But you might be surprised to know that you can easily take a look at all of the data Google has on you.

Depending on which of its tools you use, Google knows what you think, what you desire, your political and spiritual beliefs, your age, gender, the music you listen to, what you watch online, what you read, where you have been and where you plan to go, where you shop online and much more.

Simply, Google has your digital life under its armpit.

How does it amass all that data? Through Google search, the Chrome browser, Gmail, Google News, Google+, Book Search, YouTube, Picasa, Translation, Maps, Street Views, Waze, Nest, and... well, the list keeps growing as Google acquires more companies and more data-crunching abilities.

In exchange for Google’s free services — from the search page, YouTube, Gmail, Drive to Maps — Internet users implicitly allow Google to store and share their compiled information to third parties, whether they like it or not.

Web and app activity, which includes things like your search history and activity in maps, are turned on by default on both iPhone and Android devices because they are tied to your Google account.
Google can share this information with advertisers so that their ads are more effective. Based on the information it gathers, Google attempts to discern its users’ interests and habits.
Target audience
For instance, airlines want to target people who love to travel. Children’s clothing makers want to target parents. Online colleagues want to match students with courses of interest.
Some of the information Google stores is given directly by users themselves when they sign up for products, such as names, phone numbers and locations.

PERUSING THE INTERNET
But Google also gathers other information through recording and storing of users’ search terms and the items they “click” on while perusing the Internet.

When “ads based on your interests” is turned on, you’ll see ads related to your previous search queries, the videos you’ve watched on YouTube, as well as other information associated with your account, such as your age range or gender.

Last year, Google created a hub called “My Account” where users can easily view the information the company is collecting and change their settings.

Even if you consider yourself a privacy freak, it’s worth taking a look at your settings from time to time to make sure you’re comfortable with what you are sharing — or rather, what Google is keeping about you.

To sign to “My Account”, open a browser and go to your account page by typing https://myaccount.google.com/ in the search bar. You will need to make sure you are logged into your Google account to do this.

If you’re not logged in, click on the circle at the top right hand corner of the screen and enter your sign-in details.

Many people don’t realise they have a Google account, but if you use any of Google’s services — such as Gmail, Hangouts, Drive or Calendar — then you use these account credentials to log in.

Now comes the juicy stuff. If you want to know what search data Google holds on you, go back to your account home page (https://myaccount.google.com/) and click on “personal info & privacy”.

Scroll down to “activity controls” and under “your searches and browsing activity” click “manage activity”.

On the top right hand corner of the “Insights” box, click the arrow next to “last week” and select “all time”.

If you don’t like what you see, well, you can always stop using these Google tools.

Wambugu is an informatics specialist. [email protected] @samwambugu2