Google collects more personal data than almost any company on earth. But unlike most data collectors, they actually let you see and delete much of it. Most people never look. Here's what Google has on you and exactly how to find it.
Your Complete Search History
Go to myactivity.google.com. Every search you've ever done while signed into Google is logged here, along with the time, your device, and often your location. You can delete individual items or your entire history.
Your Location History
Go to maps.google.com/maps/timeline. If you use Google Maps or have an Android phone, Google has likely tracked your physical location for years. This timeline shows every place you've visited, when, and how long you stayed. You can delete specific days or your entire history.
Your YouTube Watch History
Back at myactivity.google.com, filter by YouTube. Google logs every video you've watched, every search you've done on YouTube, and uses this to build an interest profile used for ad targeting across all Google products.
What Google Thinks You Are
Go to adssettings.google.com. This page shows the demographic profile Google has built about you: your estimated age range, gender, interests, and life events. You can edit or remove these categories.
Apps With Access to Your Google Account
Go to myaccount.google.com/permissions. You'll see every third-party app that has been granted access to your Google account. Remove anything you don't recognize or actively use.
How to Turn Off Data Collection
At myaccount.google.com/data-and-privacy, you can control what Google collects going forward:
- Web & App Activity: Turn this off to stop Google from logging your searches and activity
- Location History: Turn this off to stop location tracking
- YouTube History: Turn this off to stop YouTube watch logging
You can also set auto-delete: have Google automatically delete activity older than 3 months or 18 months.
Request a Copy of All Your Google Data
Go to takeout.google.com to download everything Google has stored about you. The download can be large — some people's Google data archive is several gigabytes.
The Limits of These Controls
Turning off activity tracking reduces what Google shows you but doesn't necessarily mean they stop collecting it for other purposes. For genuine privacy from Google, you need to use a non-Google search engine (DuckDuckGo or Brave Search), a non-Chrome browser, and a non-Gmail email provider.