5 Tips And Tricks To Stop Google From Tracking You

Do you use the Internet? If you do, you are highly likely to be tracked and have your data sold to brands for ads targeting as well as user behavior study so that companies can make products and services following your needs.

However, the possibilities are vast, and they come from that fact that you may be using some popular services and products from Google.

The tech giant is infamous for tracking users regardless of whether they’re on its browser or search engine or the apps we use every day. And as our lives are filled with its services, it’s hard to imagine how much data the company collects on you.

Nevertheless, there are a few tips and tricks you can use to stop the tech giant from intruding your privacy.

1. Disabling Location Tracking

All current smartphones are fitted with GPS. Google tracks the location of Android users and gives them suggests for places as well as what to do there. However, the company also uses this data to show you ads about places that you visit more regularly or its neighborhood.

To stop location tracking, visit https://myaccount.google.com, and log into your Google account. Next, click on your profile picture and go to Google Account > Data & personalization > Location History. Finally, switch the slider to ‘Paused.’

2. Disabling Email Tracking

Marketing companies send a lot of emails to people and they know if you have opened them or not. Furthermore, they can check on how many times has a particular email been opened. They can do this thanks to the Pixel tracking feature.

To disable this feature, log into your Gmail account, head to account settings. Now, scroll down to ‘Images’ then tick ‘Ask before displaying external images.’ Remember to save the changes.

3. Disabling Audio Recordings

Google Assistant is convenient to get things done with only your voice, but the company listens and records everything you say. Then its employees will listen and turn the recordings into transcripts.

The tech giant also admitted that its digital assistant on the Home records your voice as well as other audio every time or even before you say a wake word or hit the microphone button. To stop this, go to your Google Account, then head to Data & personalization > Voice and Audio Activity. Lastly, hit the switch to stop this feature.

4. Clearing Purchase History

If you shop online, Google knows that items you have bought through the sale receipts sent to your inbox. And it uses this data to show ads relating to what you bought recently.

To end this, visit https://myaccount.google.com/purchases then click on ‘Gmail confirmations.’ Next, pick the items that you wish to delete and click on ‘Remove Purchase’. Now, select ‘View Email,’ and hit the three-dot icon on the screen’s right-hand side. Now you hit ‘Delete this message.’ One infuriating thing is that you have to do this manually with each email you receive.

5. Completely Abandoning Google Search

This is the best way to be free from Google’s tracking activity. You can replace Google Search with other engines which allow track-free browsing, DuckDuck Go is the most popular one. In addition, you can try the Tor web browser to add another privacy layer to prevent Google from tracking you.

Otherwise, just try to ensure you do all of your browsings while being logged out of your Google account.