The final two sections cover Google's video platform, and have self-explanatory names: YouTube Search History and YouTube Watch History. Since the first two are basically binary, we're going to focus on that third option. Ultimately, your choice is either to trust Google to use all this data responsibly (you can view the privacy policy here), not use Google services at all, or limit the information it can gather about you. Google would say its data collection policies improve its services-helping you find a restaurant similar ones you've liked previously, say-whereas users might disagree.Ī lot of the data we're going to talk about here is only visible to you, or used in a limited way to make ads more relevant to you. It's worth emphasizing first that we're really dealing with two topics: The amount of data Google collects on you, which is a lot, and what Google then does with it.

It's an extensive set of data, but you can take more control over what Google collects about you and how long the company keeps it. You're probably aware that Google keeps tabs on what you're up to on its devices, apps, and services-but you might not realize just how far its tracking reach extends, into the places you go, the purchases you make, and much more.

Google sharing location