Reviews Tech
Written by Dave Johnson
2020-11-27T16:34:35Z
- You can stop Google from tracking some aspects of your online activity by changing your Google Account settings.
- Google tracks many details about you whenever you use your Google account on your computer, laptop, tablet, and phone.
- Here's how to stop Google from tracking your web activity, location, YouTube history, and more.
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Google has worked its way into virtually every aspect of your life, and the search giant's network of interrelated apps and services capture, share, and rely on a great deal of personal information about you. Google tracks your search history, for example, as well as your mobile device's location, the ads you view, the videos you watch, and more.
If you prefer, you can configure Google to stop tracking you — at least, for the most part — though if you do, you'll lose the benefit of all of Google's personalization features.
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How to stop Google from tracking you
No matter what device you are using, you can disable most of Google's various tracking features:
On an iPhone,you can easily disable Google's Location History tracking. Read our article on disabling Google tracking on an iPhone.
On an Android phone,you can disable Location History and location tracking for your entire device or individual apps. Read our article on disabling Google tracking on Android devices.
On a computer, you can disable Google from using your Google Account settings in a web browser. Read our article to learn how.
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What you need to know about Google tracking on your accounts and devices
No matter which way you choose to disable Google's tracking features, you're generally using the same Google Account settings. For the most part, Google tracks you based on your account, not your device — so if you disable Google tracking using the Web & App Activity or Location History settings, you're turning off tracking on every device that uses that specific Google Account.
There is an important exception: In the Location History settings, you can click "Devices on this account" to see all the phones and tablets being tracked. You can choose to uncheck any of those devices to stop Google from tracking it. This lets Google track some of your activity, but not all of it.
Likewise, you can deny specific Google apps permission to access your phone's location services — this prevents Google from tracking your location even if you leave Location Services turned on for other devices.
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Google tracks other data that you can disable as well
In addition to web activity and location tracking, Google tracks other data as well, in particular your YouTube viewing history and details about you that inform the ads you see online. You can see more details about both of these on the Data & personalization page in your Google account settings.
To disable YouTube tracking, read our article about how to stop tracking on your computer.
The Ad personalization section of the Data & personalization page displays a wealth of information about what Google knows about you and how it is applied to the ads you are served. If you want, you can disable ad personalization entirely (click the button to slide it to the left) but it only affects the ads you see — it does not reduce the number of ads you are served, nor does it prevent Google from continuing to collect information about you.
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Related coverage fromTech Reference:
How to permanently delete your Google account, but save all your emails and other data
How to enable two-factor authentication on your Google account for added security
How to stop Google from tracking your iPhone's location
How to turn off or limit personalized ad tracking on your iPhone to protect your privacy
How to see your Google location history in Google Maps, and delete or turn off its location tracking
Freelance Writer
Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider.
On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company's advertising practices.
Watch: I cut Google out of my life for 2 weeks, but the alternatives prove why Google is so much better
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