User privacy concerns have grown as truly alarming cases have come to light, so users are gradually paying closer attention to what data they share with companies and what data companies hold about them. Do you feel the need to erase your digital footprint as much as possible? Well, we're going to show you how to do it with Google services.
How to delete your data from Google services
Google wants to demonstrate that the data is on the user's side, so with that intention it has launched a series of tutorials that teach you how to delete and hide your data from its services. The idea is that you can browse anonymously at all times, thus avoiding possible tracking of your tastes and priorities using data such as browsing history or Google assistant queries.
Google Maps
The tech giant has launched a new incognito mode navigation feature , which lets you search in the Maps app without leaving a record of your searches, location, or positioning. This way, everything you do in the Maps app won't be recorded in your Google account, so you won't receive the typical "What did you think of the restaurant?" message.
To activate Incognito Mode in Google Maps, simply tap on your profile picture and select the option to start Incognito Mode. This feature will be available this month on Android and soon on iOS.
YouTube
Tired of YouTube recommending videos related to one you just happened to watch? This is all due to your watch history, which YouTube uses to recommend other related content that might interest you. If you're fed up with this, you'll probably want to use the feature to automatically delete your watch history, or even prevent the service from generating it altogether.
To do this, you will need to go to your YouTube account activity controls , where you can disable YouTube History or schedule automatic deletion every 3 months or every 18 months.
Google Assistant
Another key aspect of our privacy is highlighted by smart assistants. What has Google heard from us? Does it have recordings of our voices stored? Basically, Google keeps a recording of all our queries to the assistant. It's scary, but it's true. If you want to take a look at the stored recordings, you just have to visit the Google Assistant Activity website to see all the queries, whether text or voice, with their corresponding recorded audio.
As in the YouTube settings, you can set the service to do an automatic deletion every 3 months or every 18 months. Something is something, although you can always delete everything manually with a simple voice command. This command is a new function incorporated into the assistant, and you will only have to say "delete everything I told you last week" for the assistant to erase all your recordings and queries from its mind. This voice command is not available at the moment, but it will be soon.
Manage my privacy on Google
All these features and options, plus many more, are available in your Google account's activity dashboard . This dashboard is a very important tool for users, as it gives them the control they've been asking for. There you can see your activity history related to all Google services, allowing you to put an end to the service's unusual tracking of you.
Of course, you must bear in mind that all this data is used so that Google products perfectly adjust to your needs and to your way of using the Internet, so do not complain when it does not offer you beautiful restaurants to go to dinner.