As many worry about the information that Facebook collects, due to the company’s recent user data scandal, we should not forget that Google also collects as much — if not more — of your data. Here is how to find out what the search giant knows about you.
Following Facebook’s latest user data scandal, Irish web developer and technical consultant Dylan Curran took to Twitter to explain why internet users should be equally worried about the data collected on them by Google. “Want to freak yourself out? I’m gonna show just how much of your information the likes of Facebook and Google store about you without you even realising it,” Curran tweeted.
Curran noted that Google stores your location data every time you turn on your phone:
Curran notes that Google actively stores every user’s search history across all devices, even if a user deletes their search history and phone history, Google collects it until the user actively goes deep into their Google account settings on every single device to delete it:
Google, like Facebook, creates an advertising profile for each user comprised of a huge amount of personal details:
Google also collects data on the apps that users use:
Google collects every user’s YouTube history and uses it to build a profile on them:
Curran described how users can get access to this data by visiting Google ‘Takeout’. When Curran went to download his data, he found that his personal file was 5.5 GB, or approximately 3 million Word documents, a massive increase in comparison to what Facebook collects on users. Curran’s Facebook file was 600 MB in comparison, approximately 400,000 Word documents:
Follow this step-by-step process to find out what Google knows about you.
Click this link, bringing you to this page:
From here, scroll down until you see the “Next” button at the bottom:
The page should load for a short minute before you see a green tick, as in the screenshot below. Then click “Create Archive:”
Google will then create an archive of your data and email you when it’s available for download: