If, like most Australians, you haven’t opted out of these Google settings, the web giant is currently tracking your physical location and all of your search history.
Google records and tracks your location
The creepiest feature that has been implemented into Google accounts in recent years, Google’s location history records where you travel with your phone and/or tablet and timestamps the locations. While this may not sound overly invasive, your customised heatmap in the timeline page may raise some alarm bells. You can turn this data collection off through the ‘Manage Location History’ button at the bottom left-hand-side of the timeline page.
Google saves every voice search
Google also tracks everything that you say. Users of Google’s voice-activated assistant ‘Google Now’ and Google’s voice search have had all of their voice searches recorded and stored. You can delete the entire log of searches through Google’s Voice & Audio Activity page.
Google saves your searches
Every web search that you have ever made on Google is tracked and you can view a full archive of this on the Google history page of your account. In the activity control settings area of your Google account, you can deactivate this information from being collected and stored by turning tracking off.
Google uses your data to personalise advertising to you
Google has and will continue to use your data to target advertising specifically to you based on your search history, YouTube history and demographic information. You can turn off ad personalisation on the Google ad settings page.
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