- What Google knows about you
- How Google tracks your data
- Use a VPN to hide your browsing activity
- How to remove your data from Google
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8 tips to increase your privacy on Google
- 1. Log out of Google services regularly
- 2. Review your privacy settings
- 3. Prevent Google from saving your searches
- 4. Turn off Google’s advertisement personalization
- 5. Manage your Google permissions
- 6. Turn off your YouTube History
- 7. Turn off your Location History
- 8. Use a VPN to encrypt your internet traffic
- Google alternatives
- Conclusion
- FAQ
If you use Google’s services, Google will collect a lot of data about you. This data might include, but is not limited to who you communicate with and the subjects and timestamps of your emails, your search and video viewing history, products you’re interested in, your location data, and the contents of your Google Docs and Drive for security and anti-abuse purposes.
Fortunately, there are some ways to protect your privacy. These include:
- Logging out of Google regularly
- Checking your privacy settings
- Stopping Google from saving searches
- Turning off ad personalization
- Managing Google’s permissions
- Disabling your YouTube history
- Turning off location services
However, the best way to block Google tracking is by using a reliable VPN to change your IP address. Based on my tests, NordVPN. is the best VPN to block tracking and protect your privacy.
Google processes roughly 8.5 to 9 billion searches every day, making it by far the most widely used search engine in the world. However, Google extends beyond simple web searches, operating services like Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Drive, and the Android operating system.
Because these services are connected through a single Google account, they collectively generate a large amount of data about how you use the internet. Searches, viewed videos, the locations you visit, and even your interactions with apps or devices can build a profile about you that lets Google improve its services while personalizing results, and even target you with specific ads.
This can lead people to wonder just how much Google knows about them. In this guide, we explain what kinds of data Google collects, where you can see the information that has been stored in your account, and what steps you can take to manage or delete it.
What Google knows about you
Google gathers a lot of data that can be used to build a profile about you and your online activity, which can be used to target you with specific advertisements. Below, we will discuss all the information that Google tracks about its users.
Communications
You may have noticed Google giving you auto-suggestions or recommending that you add tasks to your to-do list, or reminding you about bills that are due. This information is processed from your account activity. Google learns these patterns to offer better predictions and reminders.
While the company has stated that it doesn’t use this information for targeting ads, it technically still processes your emails. This might be alarming for some, but if you’re looking to move away, we have a handy guide on how to delete your Gmail account.
Contents of stored documents
Google also reads the contents stored in your Google Slides, Sheets, Docs, and other stored information to “personalize the experience.” Again, the company explicitly states that they do not use this information for advertising. They collect information to conduct reviews as part of their Abuse Program.
Search behavior in Google Chrome
Google processes billions of queries daily, with recent estimates suggesting over 5 trillion searches per year, giving the company enormous insight into global online behavior. It is clear Google knows and keeps track of your searches on Google Chrome. You might have noticed you often get to see advertisements for products or services that you’ve searched for on Google Chrome.
Shopping information
Just like Google Chrome, Google Shopping keeps track of the products you’re interested in to offer you advertisements on deals and similar products. These recommendations can appear on other devices that are linked to your Google account, even if you don’t use it for shopping or browsing products.
Your viewing history
YouTube, one of Google’s many companies, tracks your viewing history, including the channels that you subscribe to. This is used to glean information about your interests, and to serve relevant ads. YouTube alone reaches around 2.8 billion global users as of 2026, making it one of the largest sources of behavioral data in Google’s ecosystem, but you can tweak your YouTube privacy settings to clamp down on what data is tracked.
Your location history
Thanks to Location History, Google knows exactly where you’ve been, if you have this feature turned on. This is even true when you’re not using a Google Service that requires your location, such as Google Maps.
These are just a few of the many services that Google gathers data from. For a complete overview of all Google’s services that you use and the information they gather, you can check out your Google dashboard. You can also use Google Takeout to download all the data the company has on you.
How Google tracks your data
Google doesn’t just learn about you through its search engine. If you use the internet, then chances are you use some Google services. These services include:
- YouTube
- Google Maps
- Google Assistant
- Gmail
- Google Drive
- Google Play
- Google Pay
- Google Chrome browser
- Android TV
There are plenty of other services too, but these are some of the most popular ones. Whenever you start using any of these apps or platforms, Google begins to track how you use the service. The information is linked to an anonymous ID, thus creating a profile of sorts, which is shared across all other Google services.
Google then uses a highly complex AI engine to “predict” your interests and showcase content that might be relevant to you.
In May 2023, Dutch privacy groups accused Google of unlawful data-gathering practices and transferring the data of Dutch customers’ data outside of Europe in violation of the GDPR and the Netherlands’ privacy laws.
Here’s some more detail on how Google captures and tracks your data across some of its more popular apps and services.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is by far the world’s most popular browser. It logs tons of data as you browse the web, including what you search for, the sites you visit, and then it builds an advertising profile about you.
This goes beyond simple product recommendations. Google can deduce facets of your life, personality, and preferences, by looking at your search history. For example, if Fox News is your regular news source, Google can guess your political opinions and show you other things they think you’re interested in based on this simple preference.
Similarly, if you’re looking at a house in a certain neighborhood, then Google could guess your social-economic situation, the number of family members, your preferred neighborhood, and more. That’s why you see such accurate and relevant ads when you search for something.
Gmail
Google’s incredibly popular email client knows what addresses you communicate with and what subjects you discuss. That’s because Gmail scans your emails to combat scams and phishing attempts.
In fact, up until 2017, Google scanned the contents of all emails in order to create advertisement profiles about their users. Fortunately, this practice is no longer the case. While Google may still process emails for other automated purposes, like spam filtering and malware detection, Gmail ads are now based on other data tied to your Google account, such as search activity or browsing behavior.
Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and news sites
Google has an “Abuse Program” in place for some of its services. According to Google’s policies, automated systems may scan files stored in services like Google Drive and Docs to detect spam, malware, or illegal content. In some cases, content may also be reviewed if it is flagged or reported for violating Google’s policies.
It is unclear to us how often these reviews happen. While these reviews are intended to protect users and enforce platform rules, they also mean that content stored in cloud services may be subject to automated analysis
Google Location History
Some people assume that only Google Maps collects location data, but that isn’t the case. If Location History is enabled on your Google account, your device can record location information using signals such as GPS, Wi-Fi networks, and mobile towers. This data can then be used to build a timeline of places you’ve visited and to power personalized recommendations, such as nearby restaurants or travel suggestions.
This feature stores the location data of your mobile device, to show you recommendations (for instance for restaurants) based on places you frequent or have frequented. However, it is now fortunately disabled by default, and users can specify automatic deletion timeframes.
Google Shopping
Just like Google Chrome, Google Shopping collects data about you. Google Shopping uses this data to recommend certain products. Google Shopping also uses data from your Google account to personalize product recommendations and search results. For example, Google states that offers in its Shopping app may be ranked based on factors such as your search terms and other Google activity. This means that your Google usage, including your searches, browsing you see in Shopping results.
Use a VPN to hide your browsing activity
Remember that Google needs to be able to associate your activity with you as a Google user to store data on you. This is why we recommend not signing into a Google account when using Google services that can be used without an account.
But that’s not enough. Google can track your IP address and still log the data, especially if you’re using Google Chrome. The best way to hide your browsing activity from Google and other companies is to use a reliable VPN. I recommend using NordVPN, which uses robust encryption and leak protection to block tracking.
Connecting to a VPN changes your IP address. It routes your data through an encrypted server, preventing platforms like Google from building an accurate profile.
It changes your browser location too, making it seem that you’re accessing the web from another country. This is important since a change in IP address means Google can’t associate your activity (while connected to a VPN) with your account.
How to remove your data from Google
Google does give you some options to delete the data that it has on you. If you’re cautious about your privacy online, here’s how to remove the information that Google has on you.
Delete Google services data
- Go to your Google Dashboard. This is an overview of the Google services you use and the data these services have on you.
- Click on “Delete a service.” With most Google services, deleting your data is only possible by deleting the service associated with it.
- Now select either “Delete a Google Service” or “Delete your Google Account.” As you can guess, this depends on if you want to delete all your Google services and their associated data or just one.
- After making your choice, log in and go through the steps. Don’t worry, these are very clear and simple. In case you decide to delete a specific service, you’ll have to choose it by clicking on the garbage can icon next to the service.
Note
Deleting a Google service and its associated data or your entire account is permanent! The process is irreversible. Therefore, make sure this is really what you want before proceeding.
Most Google services also allow you to remove individual pieces of data or files from their platforms. This is a lot less drastic and might suit some people better.
For instance, from your Google dashboard, you can scroll down to YouTube and click on “Manage History.” You’re then able to remove individual videos from your watch history, for instance.
Keep in mind that deleting your browser history will only remove information stored on your computer. It’s not going to remove any data associated with your Google account (searches, video history, location history).
Delete personal information from Google’s search results
This one can be a bit trickier. If you want to remove personal information that’s showing up in Google’s search results, the process requires you to make a formal request. The result you want to have removed has to fall into one of the following categories:
- Non-consensual explicit or intimate personal images
- Fake pornography that involves you or was created against your will
- Content about you on a website that employs “exploitative removal practices” (e.g. asking for payment to remove content)
- Personally identifiable information or doxing content
- Images that involve minors
- Pornography that doesn’t involve you but is mistakenly (or intentionally) associated with you
- Phone numbers, home addresses, and email addresses
- Login credentials
- Bank account numbers and credit card numbers
- Government ID numbers signatures
When you’re ready to make a removal request, go to this Google form and follow the given steps.
8 tips to increase your privacy on Google
Here are eight tips that’ll help you increase your privacy on Google.
1. Log out of Google services regularly
By logging out of your Google account, Google will no longer be able to link your Google web history directly to your account. For this to work, however, you have to also make sure Google’s cookies aren’t tracking you. The easiest way to do this is by browsing in an Incognito tab or using a privacy browser instead.
2. Review your privacy settings
For Google Chrome, you can do this easily by clicking on the three dots in the top right corner and then going to “Settings” > “Privacy and Security.” You can revoke access to certain things, such as the microphone, camera, or location.
3. Prevent Google from saving your searches
Go to your Google History and log in. Click the “Data & personalization” and turn off “Web & app activity.”
4. Turn off Google’s advertisement personalization
Google uses data that they and third parties gather about you to show you personalized ads. If you want to stop this practice, which can be quite invasive, go to your ad settings on Google. If you scroll down, you can also turn off individual sources of data Google uses for ad personalization.
5. Manage your Google permissions
Your Google permissions let you see which websites and applications have access to your data and what they can capture. You can also revoke a website’s or app’s access to your data.
To do this, simply click on the website or app and then click on the blue “Remove Access.” Then, confirm your decision for the changes to take effect.
6. Turn off your YouTube History
This will stop YouTube from saving the videos you’ve watched and any searches you’ve performed. To do this, simply go to your Google Dashboard.
Now, scroll down to YouTube and click on “YouTube History.” You can now turn YouTube History off completely, turn off individual types of data, or specify a time period after which old data will be deleted.
7. Turn off your Location History
Location History tracks all the places you’ve visited. This feature can be useful because it shows you recommendations based on your (previous) location, but it’s not that great for privacy. To turn it off, simply go to your Google Activity page. Now, click on “Location History” and toggle it off.
8. Use a VPN to encrypt your internet traffic
A reliable and secure VPN redirects your data via a remote server, so your IP address is hidden. This way you’ll be more anonymous online and services like Google won’t be able to track you. This is only true provided you’re not logged into your Google account and using Incognito Mode.
Google alternatives
You can make great use of Google’s privacy settings and be very vigilant. However, the reality is Google is probably still collecting a fair bit of data about you. It’s hard to prevent this when using the services of a company that’s practically the embodiment of big data.
That’s why we also recommend checking out some Google alternatives if you’re really serious about your privacy. Below we’ll list a few of these alternatives.
- DuckDuckGo: This is a privacy-minded search engine that you can use to replace Google search.
- ProtonMail: This email client by Proton (The developer of Proton VPN) is a secure email service that encrypts all communications.
- ProtonDrive: Proton also offers a secure alternative to Google Drive in their “Unlimited” package.
- OpenStreetMap: This navigation and map service is a more privacy-minded alternative to Google Maps and doesn’t track places you visit.
- Tor: If you’re truly serious about privacy and want to go one step further than using a private search engine, you can use the Tor browser.
Tor is arguably the most secure option if you want to improve your privacy, as it encrypts all your traffic and sends your data through at least three of its many servers to hide its origin. It’s a great privacy-minded alternative to Google Chrome.
Conclusion
Google’s data collection isn’t malicious, as much of the information it gathers is used to improve its services, personalize your search results, and deliver more relevant adverts. For some people, this level of personalization can make online services more useful.
However, it can also feel intrusive, and some people aren’t aware of just how much information is tied to their Google account. Understanding what data is collected and how it’s used is important if you want to make informed choices when it comes to your online privacy.
Fortunately, you don’t have to accept all of Google’s tracking by default. By reviewing your Google privacy settings, limiting activity tracking, and using tools like a VPN, you can significantly reduce the amount of information linked to your online activity.
FAQ
All searches you perform through Google are used to build your profile. This information allows Google to draw all sorts of conclusions about you, including where you live, what your family situation looks like, what kind of products you like to buy, and whether you’re considering looking for another job.
This way, Google probably knows more about you than you’d expect. To prevent this, you can use an anonymous search engine.
Google gains a lot of information from your searches and other Google services, like Google Maps, Gmail, Chrome, and YouTube. This information can then be used to build a profile about you and your preferences. However, by using a private browser and a secure VPN, you can prevent this degree of tracking.
Google uses personal data to run its services, personalize results, and deliver targeted advertising. By analyzing information such as your searches, YouTube activity, location data, and interactions with Google services, they can build advertising profiles that help companies reach relevant audiences.
It’s quite easy to find out what information Google has about you. Simply follow these steps to download a complete information report:
- Go to Google Takeout.
- Select the Google applications you want to download your data from. If you want all data Google has on you, just leave everything selected.
- Scroll down, click on “Next Step” and select how you want to receive your data report (by email or one of four drive options, the export frequency, file type, and maximum file size).
- Click on “Create export” and wait for the process to complete.
Google can collect a large amount of information about you if you regularly use its services. This data can come from many different sources, including Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, Android devices, and other Google apps connected to your account. This information includes search history, videos you watch, emails, files stored in Google Drive, payment methods, and location data.
