Using My Activity Privacy Tool of Google

Google is known to collect information when its users browse the Internet through Google’s browser. It also collects data when they use its apps and services. But do you ever wonder what type of data that the company collects from you?

Introducing My Activity Privacy Tool. It is a new tool that allows you to get a better picture of your digital tracks. Unfortunately, it does not actually tell you everything.

This tool can be accessed by going to myaccount.google.com. Once you are logged in using your Google account, you can set up your privacy and security options. You will get a link that states “Go to my activity.”

From there, you will see those sites you have visited including the links. You will also find details about what you have searched for using the search engine and the places you found through Google Maps, as well as the videos you have seen on YouTube.

You can filter your searches by date or a particular Google product.

The My Activity Privacy Tool allows you to delete specific events. All you have to do is click the three-dot button known as the menu. When you remove information from My Activity, the company will no longer collect that information when profiling you.

At first glance, My Activity Privacy tool is actually helpful and transparent. But it only shows information for the device that you are using at the time. If you wish to see those data across multiple devices, however, you have to opt into its advertising privacy setting.

By opting in, you are giving the company permission to collect data with other data that the company keeps separate. These data will include information from your personal interactions using Google Calendar, Gmail, and other apps.

Google does track your activities when you are using its apps, such as booking flights or block spammy emails. When you allow the company to combine those silos of data, the company can better personalize the ads that you see in the apps or the web in a shorter period. In the long term, however, it can lead to a better privacy tool.

Even if you opt to combine those data, you still can’t see accurately what the company is logging when it combines all of your emails.

Google is not the only one tracking your websites visit. Facebook, for example, tracks and collects data when you are using its apps and services. The only difference is that Google provides you with a choice whether to combine those data sets or not; while the social networking site does it by default.

Whatever your preferences are, My Activity Privacy tool of Google is a great tool. But you should remember that when you opt in, you are also giving up your personal information.