Don't Let Google Track You. Change These 3 Settings ASAP

Google can log your searches, watch history, and activity across its various services. That might sound handy for a quick review of your browsing history or revisiting locations on Google Maps, but the company's data collection practices can feel invasive at times. Your data helps Google serve faster searches and better location tracking, but it's also used to serve you ads and "recommended" content. Looking to dial back Google's influence? It's a good idea to occasionally check in on what data it has from you.

Thankfully, Google has built-in tools that allow you to change what information you're sharing. You can head to Google's My Activity dashboard to view your data. The Data & privacy section of your Google account dashboard also lets you make changes, with easy access to Personalized ads settings. It's easy to check and change these options, but the company counts on you never taking the time to actually do it. If you're ready to take back some control, here's what to do next.

Wipe Your Web and App Activity

If you use Google Search or any Google-owned apps, your activity will be tracked under the Web & App Activity section. From this screen, I use the drop-down menu and choose Turn off to immediately stop Google from tracking my activity. If you select Turn off and delete activity, it will disable the feature but also wipe all previously saved information from Google's servers.

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If you'd rather get rid of a bunch of data from a specific Google service, you can also select that app (like Maps, Search, News, Play, etc.) from this menu. For example, I chose Google News, which then shows a timeline of all my activity with the service. I can then go through and click the X icon to remove something. Otherwise, use the drop-down menu in the top-right to delete a specific subset (or all) activity for the app.

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I can also manage settings for Chrome, voice and audio activity, and Visual Search. These were all turned off by default for me. Finally, I can select Choose an auto-delete option at the bottom of the menu to tell Google when to automatically delete my data. It gives me the choice between 3-, 18-, or 36-month intervals. Any activity that falls outside this timeframe will be deleted immediately. Then, more data will be deleted as it hits the selected cutoff point.

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Lock Down Location Tracking (and Manage Your Timeline)

Accessing your location data may be a bit trickier these days. All location data is maintained in a repository that Google calls Timeline. It's a map of all the places you've visited, routes you've taken, and trips you've been on. It's so detailed that I can even drill down to a specific day and see my exact driving route. Syncing all this data across multiple devices seemed questionable to me. Google apparently agreed; it now stores Timeline data on individual devices and deletes your history after three months.

If you want to manage this information, I recommend switching to your phone and changing the settings in the Google Maps app, since there are more options available there. In the app, tap your profile icon and choose Your Timeline to see your location data. Take a look at the cloud icon in the top right. Is it turned off? Cloud backups are disabled by default, but if you turned this on and forgot about it, I recommend turning it off again, since this would mean your Timeline is now accessible from multiple devices.

You'll be able to view and edit data for individual days, trips you may have taken, and places you visited—and remove that data with a tap. When you find something, hit the trash can icon to delete the entire day; or open the three-dot menu next to a specific location and choose Remove stop from the day to delete it from your history.

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 For more control, open the three-dot menu and hit Location & privacy settings. I keep Google Photos turned off to keep my photos off my Timeline. Tap Location is on > Maps (Android) or Location is on > Location (iOS) to access your phone's location settings, if you want to limit the app's ability to track your movements. I keep it set to Use precise location for better routing and Allow all the time because I share my location with my spouse, but you might not need these.

Tap Timeline is on (Android) or Timeline settings (iOS) to access Timeline controls. Tap the Turn off drop-down to disable Timeline and/or clear out Google's data stores. Additionally, I found an option on by default that allowed businesses to use my data for ad tracking, so I disabled it. Timeline tracking can also be deleted by tapping Delete all Timeline data to clear everything out or Delete range of Timeline data to remove a smaller subset. By default, Timeline deletes your data after three months. To change that, tap Auto-delete Timeline to choose 3-, 18-, or 36-month intervals, or keep it indefinitely.

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Banish Personalized Ads

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Google uses your web and app activity, YouTube history, and location data to personalize the ads it shows you. I recently took notice of this and decided I no longer want Google to use my data to show me personalized ads. I dug into my Google account, under Data & privacy, and found the Personalized ads section, where I can control personalized ads served by Google and also those from third-party partners.

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To disable Google's personalized ads, I clicked My Ad Center, then opened the Personalized ads drop-down menu in the top-right corner and chose Turn off. This deleted my My Ad Center preferences and prevented my Google activity from being used to personalize the ads I see. But I wasn't done yet; I returned to the Personalized ads section, clicked Partner ad settings, and then disabled the option that let Google's partners use my data.

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