privacy vs. Google

[jchuzi]

If you want to have your Google data evaporate to preserve privacy, read   How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct I stopped using Google awhile ago in favor of DuckDuckGo precisely because of data tracking concerns. 

[Xairbusdriver]

Thanks, Jon.
I use Maps several times a week. The only data that never changes is my home address. I can easily create a keyboard shortcut to insert that... why haven’t I done that?! Because it’s so easy to let the greedy site do that for me!!! Laziness is the root of data loss... or something like that.

I suppose one must ‘sign in’ to take advantage of these settings.

[Xairbusdriver]

Of course, the only surefire way to prevent Google from saving data about you is to, well, not use Google products.

I already have "Web & App Activity", "Location Activity" and "Youtube History" Paused. Still looking for a good definition of what that actually does...

Once you have disabled (i.e. paused) the “Web & App Activity” feature Google will no longer gather and store your search history.

Important: Simply disabling “Web & App Activity” won’t delete any search information that Google already has stored in conjunction with your account.

I'm pretty sure this applies to all the "Activities".

Rick's site (Aug, 26, 2019) also has instructions on Deleting your entire Search History. I could not see a way to access the 'delete' options from "myaccount.google.com/myactivity" page. I had to attack from a slightly different url: "myactivity.google.com" (mentioned in the instructions, of course). On that page there are several choices on "deleting" your collected data. Fortunately, I got the following:

Confirm you would like to delete the following activity
Delete now
You have no activity, so no data will be deleted now

That "activities" page also has a section (you will probably have to scroll down a bit  ) that turns ON/OFF "Ad personalization".

I hope my settings will now reduce the work load on Google's servers and help cut their electricity usage. Just doing my part to help them out.

[Highmac]

I think I read it in the comments, but someone made the valid point (in my opinion!) that by the time you get to Day 3 all your info has been sold to whoever buys it and Google has no further need of it, so it's just a snappy PR move. Sounds highly plausible to me... why clutter your servers with stuff that no longer has any value?


I do use Google, but only when it suits me; otherwise it's DuckDuckGo via Safari. On my screen DDG provides a slide button to "deactivate" the UK connection. Just did an experiment - searched for iPlayer (the BBC's on-demand service) with the UK button off and it headed the finds list with a US band called Player, from the 70s, with the BBC's link way down the list. Switch the button to 'on' and iPlayer tops the list.


Well, I though it was interesting...