You’ll Be Shocked To See How Much Google Knows About You

Google creates this virtual profile using the digital footprint left behind by a user on its various apps such as YouTube, Chrome, Search, Gmail, and others. Google then uses personal information to push targeted ads to the user. But the amount of information that Google has on you is shocking. Let's dive into the details.

Personal Information That Google Has

The information that Google knows about you includes your gender, age group, interests, and much more. Google has a near-accurate idea about a person's life. With technologies like facial recognition, voice commands, and search tracking becoming normal, Google also has an idea about how you look, what you sound like. Not just that; it also has information about things like your religious beliefs, your health, and whether you have children or not.

Surprisingly, Google has a website that tells you what the search giant thinks of you. The page shows a list of interests of the user in individual chunks. But it does offer the option of turning off personalization. While some of the categories are so vague, they could qualify as meaningless, some of the information is shockingly accurate, such as educational qualification, job industry, age.

Google Knows Your Friends And Food Habits

We already know that Google uses location tracking to determine a person's location, workplace, and places they have traveled. But what might surprise you more is that Google also knows who you speak to, and what topics you talk about. Not just that; it also knows who you're with and when. 

Besides, the algorithm also determines your food preferences, favorite movies, books, and stores where you like to shop at the most. Your search history is also a reflection of your plans; so if you are planning a trip, Google already knows it.

How To Stop Google From Tracking You?

If you want to opt-out of this surveillance, there are a few ways you can try. You can adjust the privacy settings of your browser or use a different browser for searching altogether. Moreover, you can turn off your location tracking from settings. Also, there's the big step of deleting all your Google accounts, but that might not be feasible. If all this doesn't work, spend some money on a good VPN to browse in anonymity.

While it would be difficult to know whether Google will stop tracking individuals after they turn off the personalization option, it's still a good step towards giving more clarity to the users. Many other tech giants such as Facebook offer a similar feature that lets users see what data has been collected and sold to advertisers. If these methods aren't convenient for you, be ready to live with the idea of contributing to the billions in revenue these big tech firms earn by selling your personal information.