Everyone keep an eye on Facebook when it comes to privacy. After the information breach of more than 87 million users by Facebook, it got bad publicity. But due to all attention diverted towards Facebook, the search engine, Google, appears to be slipping under this radar when the matter is of privacy.
There is no denying the fact that Google too is storing your information. It would be justifiable to say that Google knows about you more than Facebook. Should you be worried or is Google committed to ensuring your privacy is another debate.
How Much Does Google Know?
Let’s answer this in the simplest way: Google knows everything that you allow it to remember. It means that your privacy setting is the main thing that determines how much of your data will be accessible to Google regarding your activity and browsing history on related products.
For providing you with a real-life example regarding how much information Google has, I downloaded data related to me, and it was 2 GB that is equal to around 1.5 million documents.
This usually ranges from video previewing, online searches, location history, apps, browsing history, and more. Everything or device which you connect with Google such as your mobile is gathering data.
Location History
Google not only have a record of your location, but also track the travel time, time of the day, date of travel, and hours or days spent at every site. On Google Fit, it frequently records how many steps are taken by you, anytime you worked or walked out and for how much time.
Apps history
Google is also gathering data through apps such as WhatsApp or Uber that you are using on your devices. Through which you allow Google to get information. This comprises app extensions, such as Messenger so that Google can track with whom you are chatting on Facebook and at what time of the day you were active and even when you sleep.
Photos and Videos
Google Photos will keep all the data regarding from where you have taken the images, with whom and when you were over there. You will be surprised to see that when you pull up Google photos, it begin categorising the things and people in the picture.
Google Calendar
The role of Google calendar is to record all the events that you have attended on specific dates. Google has a separate database where it keeps search history of all your devices. So, in case you remove your phone history and search history, even then Google has everything in the database unless you delete if off from every device.
Automatic fill-ins online
Automatic fill-ins online such as credit card information and passwords are all saved and stored in the database of Google. The most uneasy for users is that Google will keep those files as well that you have deleted.
But, one should keep this in mind that the motive for saving details is not for ill-purposes; instead, this is done for ad sharing and profit. Google apps and services are now a part of our everyday life. It is extremely difficult to shun Google all of a sudden.
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