The search giant is a repository of your entire online life, which companies can then use to market their products to you.
New Delhi: So, your Facebook data has found its way to the centre of a raging debate on web privacy with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. But there’s someone who knows much more about you – for example, where you were last summer and what you ate there.
Meet the real Big Brother of web data records: Google. The search giant is a repository of your entire online life, which companies can then use to market their products to you. There is a reason why that outfit you viewed on the e-tail website pops up in advertisements almost wherever you go online.
As the company says, “We put your data to work for you.”
Even so, most people are unaware of the kind of data that is being stored about them and how Google accesses them.
According to technical consultant Dylan Curran, Google can access everything, from your location since you switched on your phone, to the kind of yoghurt you prefer on Sunday.
Here is a lowdown on the things Google knows about you.
Every location visited
If you keep the ‘location’ option on your Android phone switched on, Google can create a map and timeline of each of the locations you visit.
Google will also keep track of the time spent at each location, the commute, and what time of the day you visited these places. The idea is to help you “rediscover the places you’ve been to”.
Is search history ever deleted?
As you use Google across different devices — your laptop, your phone, your office computer — your search history gets stored on all the devices collectively. Even if you delete the history from one device, it continues to exist on the others.
You can track your activity here.
What will you buy today?
The data collected through searches and location history helps Google make individual ad profiles for every person.
If you search for bell-bottom jeans, chances are that most of the sites you visit will show you pop-up advertisements for them.
Google also analyses a person’s hobbies, gender, age, relationship status and income to curate ads for them.
YouTube remembers what you did last summer
YouTube searches can tell a lot about a person — if they are feeling down, starting pilates, or trying out a new recipe. Based on the videos one is watching, Google can know your religion, economic status, career, health and political ideology. The company can then manipulate what it displays, accordingly.
Did you chat with that friend at night?
Not only does Google have access to most apps you download, it also stores information about the ones you search for. It also reads how much time you spend on a given app.
Google even has access to Facebook messenger, and whom someone has messaged as well as their location.
The takeout you do not want
Enter Google Takeout: It’s the feature that allows you to download your entire digital history. From your search history in 2009, to deleted Google Drive documents, and even the music you have listened to. Takeout provides thousands of documents about a user’s digital life.
Google Calendar stores data on events, when they were attended and at what time. Photos are also stored.
Even Facebook offers the option to download the history of your activity on the site. The company stores your preferences based on likes, conversations with others, and comments — as well as the emoticons you most use. Your Gmail data, including spam and trashed mails, is there too.
Most people do not even know that such detailed data about their lives exists in the digital world.