This Woman Shows How To Find Out What Google Knows About You

By Mayukh Saha / Truth Theory

It is not a secret that Google has vast amounts of information on everything you can think about, including yourself. But, for a normal user, we do not ever really know how much Google knows about us. To help you find that out, this woman made a video on viewing whatever Google has collected about you.

TikToker @yorgoandlea shared a short video that has instructions on how to find every single piece of data that Google has about you. In the video, the user first goes to the Google homepage. Then she types in “ad setting google” in the search bar. On clicking on that link, you will be prompted to sign in, if you are not already signed in.

Read: Newly Developed Google AI Is Learning From Its Environment And Can Become Highly Aggressive

It Even Has A Guess About What You Might Like

After that, the video shows that a list will be displayed where your gender, age, as well as the languages that you speak can be found. Perhaps, the more interesting information stored on the page is what Google thinks that you might have an interest in. In her example, the topics were ‘audio equipment’, and ‘architecture’.

Ever since it was posted, thousands of users have viewed the video. Comments have flooded in, mostly from people who were surprised by the amount of information that Google has on them. The original account does not exists anymore but take a look at the video here:

One commenter was simply shocked after trying it. Another pointed out that it was so accurate that it was scary. Another commenter said that this is the reason they choose to disable stuff like this.

However, the information was not as shocking, vast, or even accurate for several others. For example, a 19-year-old said that Google recorded their age as over 44. One more commented that Google thought they were 65 years old and had an interest in reality shows on TV and Utah.

As per the information publicly available, Google records information about the users, like the videos being watched, cookie data, location, as well as the advertisements that you choose to follow. Google claims that this information only serves to make its other services function better and more suitable for you.

Read: Google Admits “Home” Smart Device Is Listening To Your Recorded Audio 

The page further explains that using the data, Google makes your advertisements more relevant whenever you use Google services (like YouTube or Search). This also extends to ads shown on apps and websites that use Google ads. The ads are selected based on the personal information that users choose to add to their Google accounts, Google ads data, as well as an estimation of the users’ interests by Google.

More importantly, Google does swear to never sell the data. Moreover, it makes the ads more relevant without giving the advertisers any of the information. Plus, for those who really do not want any part of that, there is an option to turn off Google’s ad personalization. The option is available on the same page that has all this information.

All Image Credits: @yorgoandlea