Google’s broad range of online services collect a startling amount of personal data on all your current and past Google activity.
The company recently launched a “My Activity” page, which gives users a detailed overview of their past Google activity. Stan Schroeder, Senior Editor at Mashable, reveals how you can look back on everything you’ve ever done on any Google platform.
The new feature compiles every interaction you’ve made with Google, unless you’ve specifically set your security preferences to not allow it. For most of us, it will include browsing history, search queries, and videos watched on YouTube. Active users of Google’s services will see almost their entire online life compressed on one webpage. The searchable database lets you filter by date or product and even displays an overview showing how many items there are and what platforms they are tied to.
Though this new feature can be useful, some users may not like the amount of personal data automatically collected and stored by Google. However, you can adjust your privacy and settings on Google’s Activity Controls page to prevent Google from accumulating more of your unwanted information.
Google is leveraging this data to serve consumers targeted ads that are more specific to their personal interests. This new feature is turned off by default, but you can opt-in by changing your settings.
