I have mentioned before that if you have an Android phone or use Google Maps on any device, your movements are being recorded. Just browse to “maps.google.com” for a peek. Once there, click the menu (hamburger, three horizontal bars) on the upper left and choose “Your timeline.” Take a look around and see where you have been…unless you have stopped this feature. More about that later.
Google recently came out with another tracking function that you may not have heard of yet. It is called My Activity and you can find yours at myactivity.google.com.
Basically this feature of Google follows you all over the web. Pretty much anywhere you go online is recorded. This activity page allows you to see when you visited websites (links are included so you can revisit them) along with everything you have searched for using Google. It goes on to show you YouTube videos you have watched because Google owns that too. All locations you have used in Google Maps are there. Even the games you have looked for and played on your Android device have that history shown. Finally, every app I use on my Google device is revealed. I could see how many times I checked my Gmail and when I played a game of Hanging Free (the only online game I play).
By-the-time you read this who knows what else they may be finding out about you. Well, Google is a search engine so what did you expect?
Now keep in mind that if you are not logged into your Google/Gmail account in your browser you are safe from being followed. Keep in mind also that if you are using an Android phone, tablet or Chromebook, you must be logged into your Google account for everything to work.
Once you go to the “My Activity” site you will notice a declaration that states, “Only you can see this data. Google protects your privacy and security.” You can click there and read all of the information Google has and how it is used. I found it disquieting that their descriptions are done with little cartoons, since I personally do not like cartoons for important explanations.
You may ask, “Can I stop this!?” Sure you can, I would not have tried to scare you like this unless I had a way out! Go to your own My Activity page and to the right of each item you will see three vertical dots. Click them and choose either details or delete and click the one you wish to perform. Next to the Day listing you can only delete.
Now if you just want to get rid of all of them try this. Click the hamburger icon in the left corner next to “Google My Activity” and choose “Delete activity by.” Once there use the controls at the top and choose what days you want to delete from your activity history. Scroll to the bottom of the list and select “All time” and once deleted all of the information will vanish.
Finally, go back to hamburger “Google My Activity” but this time choose “Activity controls.” When there you may select which particular types of information you want to stop by clicking the on/off buttons. Do not panic! There are only six of them to adjust. I cut them all off on my account with the exception of “Location history.”
