What does Google know about you? It is a known fact that if something is uploaded on the internet, it never leaves the virtual world. Whether it’s stored on someone’s device or even after you delete it, it exists in the internet world. Fun fact, Google is not just a search engine, but it has been added into the dictionary as a proper word, which means searching. Don’t believe me…Google it! Google is the most used search engine. When you reach out to the search engine for searching information, Google uses your searches to reach out to you, basically understanding you. Whether or not you like it, there is a lot of information about you clogged on the internet. Google, our beloved search engine, gathers a lot of information about us without us realizing. Like any tech company, Google also stores personal data and thus creates an astonishing image or picture of what you are. So today let’s discuss what exactly does Google know about us? The search engine tries to understand you through your search history, further it shows you the related ads. When you click on the link in google settings page, you can see what google knows about you. Google predicts the users’ age, gender, marital status, income, and even personal interests. If you feel like that the information is wrong, then it even lets you correct the information and thus make changes. Users can even stop google from making predictions by changing the settings. If you are wondering how Google gets your personal data…well, I have the answer. You provide the personal data to it! Shocked? Thought so. Google has developed plenty of applications which we use for FREE. But in case you forgot, nothing in this world is for free. By using the free stuff, we become the actual product All the google applications save your search and watch history. Whether it’s YouTube watch history or even your mails history which you have sent or received. So basically, google has access to all the information you thought only you could see. Another thing which you need to know is that google trackers are not just limited to the google applications, they are present on 75% of the top websites. Thus, whenever you use any of the top websites, google tracks your activity and thus uses the information you use on that website to enrich its own information about you! Hence, all your information is siphoned off on the internet and there is nothing known as personal information on the internet. What are my Choices After knowing this you don’t have to delete all contact with google or the internet, but you can simply change a couple of settings and limit the information you want the world to see. The google tracker tracks your movement and tries to understand your behavior towards certain situations. So why do you think Google needs to keep a track of your personal information? Well, the simple answer is that everyone wants to grow, and this era belongs to the informative world. Google keeps a track of you and tries to predict you because it wants to display better and more targeted ads rather than simply throwing random ads towards you. After all, every company earns from the advertisements they do. AdWords, which was launched in 2000, remains Google’s largest source of income. How many times people have a question that, does google always tracks my location? Yes, it does. Don’t panic, read it through first. If you are an android user, then you are tracked all the time without you knowing. For example, if you carry your mobile to some location, then google is aware of that location if it’s available on the google services app. There is a major chance that it already knows your regular route to office or university, it also knows your home address, office address, which departmental stores you walk in, how much time you spend there, etc. All the information gathered is used to understand, you so that they can create and display more targeted ads. Well, now, if you are planning to change your navigator, you may jump to WAZE. Now you might think that your information is safe, well you couldn’t be any more wrong. Google knows you switched to Waze and would track you from that navigator, too. Some might think about VPN. Well, VPN is a great way to not get tracked, but there is a small drawback that it’s not foolproof. You can hide your IP address, thus hiding most of the information. The good ones would make your history go private also, but you need to make sure you are doing the right thing and not actually supplying more information. If you must use google for surfing, then consider the incognito option. Incognito option does not keep a track of your search history, but yes, it is also not foolproof. Google tracking bots can still track your movement. And it’s a wrap You might not know a lot about yourself as much as Google knows about you. Google keeps a track of all your information, and you can say it makes a file and keeps on adding to that folder. For once you might forget that you searched for something, but Google trackers will not. Don’t be scared to use google after this, since it is the best. But you should be smart about what you share and where you share your information. It’s all about being aware and knowing how it all works. About SNS Secure Network Solutions (SNS) is a Cyber Security focused company and has been helping businesses use internet safely for last 21 years. For any cyber security concerns and to protect your business against cyber-attacks, feel free to write us at : [email protected]