Google MyActivity

[rh71]

They made this page available which allows you to easily view everything they collect on you.

http://myactivity.google.com

I've had everything enabled for convenience (like my Home and other visited locations when doing Maps searches so they come up faster). Same with Youtube and recommendations. Is this a bad thing and should I just disable everything possible? What have you done with your settings?

Web & App Activity
Location History
Device Information
Voice & Audio Activity (disabled)
Youtube Search History
Youtube Watch History

 

[TheGardener]

It's been a while since I've been to the settings page to deactivate whatever they allow me to deactivate. Given more "features" to monitor, I probably should go back and see what's what.

I can't advise you what settings to enable or disable. I do wonder how many Google account holders have even a clue that they exist, or cannot break away for a few minutes from their phones to even check.

 

[vi edit]

Wow, that proves just how boring my life really is.

This forum, minivan reviews, board game reviews and home depot searches.

 

[Exterous]

Apparently I turned all these off. GJ me

Wow, that proves just how boring my life really is.

This forum, minivan reviews, board game reviews and home depot searches.

 

[Dude111]

Nothing on me and they havent ever had anything..

I am very careful online....... (Private,etc)

 

[dainthomas]

Meh. It's all collected by someone anyway.

If you care that much about privacy, you should be living in a cave and writing your manifesto on the wall. Otherwise any privacy you think you have is an illusion.

 

[PottedMeat]

Is this a bad thing and should I just disable everything possible?

'disable' means 'display status as 'off' to account owner, but collect that shit anyway'

 

[CraKaJaX]

Meh. It's all collected by someone anyway.

This.

 

[TheGardener]

Washington Post article

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...g-google-knows-about-you-and-how-it-knows-it/

 

[Bardock]

"there has to be a trade-off between privacy concerns and functionality." -Eric Schmidt

 

[rh71]

I just decided to disable everything through Activity Controls and see how I get along but it doesn't actually save when I leave the page. I go back to it and everything shows enabled again. All kinds of awesome.

 

[lupi]

Must have killed most things, all that shows is some YouTube stuff.

 

[lxskllr]

I'm not signing in and letting them know I'm interested, but I've turned all that stuff off in the past, and the only google I use is legacy email. They don't have much from me.

 

[aigomorla]

its making it real hard to be a teenage now a days..

Parents: Where have you been
Kid: friends house
Parents: oh really... thats not what your cell phone tells me..
Kid: @#$#@ Google..

 

[Spacehead]

It only keeps track if you are logged into your Google account while surfing the web. The YouTube histories were both turned on for me but showed nothing and the other stuff was off already.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I just checked and it's literally just youtube, and that's it. Of course, that's the data they want to show. They probably still know every website I visit despite not even using google for anything. FB does the same thing.

 

[Pulsar]

I have most things turned off, but some you have to leave on for functionality - like improving voice recognition. And it does make a huge difference. I shut it off and tried it and couldn't pull up my contacts when I old my phone to call someone, etc. The phone didn't understand what I was saying.