What Does Google Know About You? The Harsh Truth

Updated on March 11th, 2019 by Quertime Writer in Cyber Security

As a user, we are always kept in the dark, but Google knows everything about people connected over the internet. Using any product of the giant gives an edge to the company to harvest as much data as it requires. If you use Gmail, Google Drive or any of its services on your smartphone, the company uses and asks for multiple data to make its services better and users have to provide it. Just by skimming through the privacy policy, you will find that Google has access to every bit of information on users but how it knows about the data is the real deal.   Majority of the times users are not sure what the giant is asking or demanding and with complete innocence, we agree to its term and conditions without going to the lengthy list of detailed clauses.

To find out more let’s dive in to see what Google knows and how you are feeding information to it.

Activities Online

At the end of the day, Google is a search engine that would know what you search and how you make your search. So it’s no surprise the amount of information it would have on you whether its personal details, where you want to travel, pages you’ve visited, etc. Google has a big list of every website that you have visited so far; every like, dislike and share on YouTube and what not! It is a wholesome directory of your life online.

It has stored the tiniest of details which we think very little of as bookmarks or how are settings work. Let’s see how it understands and saves your browsing activities.

Passwords you’ve asked Chrome to save for you
Sites you’ve told Chrome not to save passwords for
Browser settings you’ve changed in Chrome
Website addresses you’ve ever entered in the address bar
Gmail conversations you had
Entire Google searches made
Email addresses, addresses, and phone numbers

This is not an extensive list because the list of what Google retains on you would be detailed and comprehensive.

Your Identity

Thanks to the facial recognition present in Google Photos, the search giant has a clear idea of what you might look. It creates a label within Google photos that works as a tag on the people present in the pictures and Google can separate one person from another. Your voice acts as a security tool because of voice commands within Google Home on the majority of the Android devices for retaining voice commands.

You’ll be surprised to view past voice commands in the “Voice and Audio” of Google’s Activity section and you can hear them as well. The website has a complete record of your audio commands and voice controls. All the voice commands help Google create a user profile to enable them to make services better.

Have you ever used Google fit? The product has a good record and overview of how your health is functioning; how many steps you’ve taken to how many calories you burn in a day. That only works if you use the app!

Furthermore, with the searches made like ‘what are the best cornflakes’?, what would you expect to find? This search and many others are compiled together to understand how your thinking and perspective works about life no matter what your language is.

Places You’ve Ever Visited (Grocery store, park etc.)

Places you’ve ever been to, visited or drove passed cannot be hidden from Google — all salute to Google’s high-end location recognition technology, that gives them the authority to know everything you did on your vacation to the Bahamas or when your next travel will be. This can be negligence of the user but storing these geo-tags is a threat. Do you have a meet-up spot? A nearby gym for exercises? A daycare centre for your young ones? Google probably has a profile on your locations.

Addition to retaining information, Google easily collects data of places you visit; it’s shocking that Google would also know tiny details like check-in times and the hotel you would stay in according to your pay scale. If you would talk about Google services, then Google’s smartphone ‘Pixel’ tracks your presence through multiple ways which would include GPS and data packages.

This indicates the phone is a live tracking device which will retain and store your every move and how long you have been there. What’s alarming is Google algorithm then interprets the data and tries to come up with conclusions. For instance, it would take 2-3 days for ‘Google Now’ to understand where you live depending on your routines and traits.

But you can partially protect yourself by using privacy tools to remain anonymous while using Google products. This will be a handy requirement to stop Google tracking your whereabouts.

Your Likes and Preferences

The main purpose of Google is to understand and know what you are into and the tech giants search engine uses its searches to sell personalized ads. From your favorite books, food or genre Google would know it all. Also, Google can get an insight on your like and dislikes for example by cross-checking the number of famous recipes and chefs searched. Apps like Google books is a good place to search and read, but it keeps a cache on the searches made which deepens the knowledge of Google.

This is not it; Google has a way of comparing the online shops you visit and target ads according to your price set and categories. Since it tracks your website visits, it keeps a tab on the products liked and purchased.

Would You Still Use Google?

What we discussed is an overview of some of the things Google knows about you. Google is a mobile tracking platform that is evolving as we speak. The amount of data it receives and collects is exceptional with receiving 63,000 searches per second accumulating to 5.6 billion searches per day. Now imagine the amount of data it retains on you?

Google works as a system and is part of us. We can reduce the amount of data given but boycotting the leading search engine would be going back to the stone-age days. However, acknowledging the process of Google and how it deals with information is essential.