Removing personal information from Google

Google is the most popular search engine in the world, and google.com is the most visited site in the world every year. In the user agreement there is a clause about privacy policy, which starts with the words «By using Google services, you trust us with your personal data». Many users don’t attach importance to this, and in vain.

Why it matters

Initially the collection of information is justified by the desire to refine search queries for the user and make his interaction with services easier and more convenient. In theory, personal information is completely visible only to the user himself. Problems start if an intruder gets hold of his password.

Another reason not to leave your data on the Internet is the unwillingness to see targeted ads. Believe me, most of all your search queries are interested in sites where you can buy something. Imagine you want to give a loved one a book, for example. You «googled» publishers and where it is better to buy a gift: in an online store or in a bookstore near your home. After that, a book will be offered to buy on all the advertising banners that will appear on the sites. This will easily spoil your surprise.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Google collects and saves not only queries, but also events such as form submissions and postal actions. If you want Google to «forget» something about you, delete your activity information.

Clearing activity information

You can manage your activity data on the «My Activity» page.

On this page you can:

• search for specific actions by date or category;
• view and delete searches, specific pages and information stored on them;
• completely clear all data for the period of use.

Ad Protection

Go to your account page. Go to the «Personalized ads» page via the «Data & privacy» tab. Deactivate this feature to stop seeing contextual ads.

Don’t forget about YouTube

The second most popular video hosting site in the world is youtube.com, which is owned by Google. It also stores information about your search queries and the history of your watched videos. This data is easy to delete. Select «History» on the left side of the screen, click «Clear all watch history» and select the «Pause watch history» option.

Information about you

Another relevant issue has to do with deleting personal information that is published on the Internet. For example, you put your first and last name in the search bar, and the results somehow compromise you or simply do not satisfy you. You can write to Google support, but if the material linked to is not against the law, it will be extremely difficult to remove it. This is a peculiarity of the company's work, with which they have been trying to fight for years to no avail.

Information security and personal data protection are extremely important issues these days. Try not to compromise yourself and be careful in your search queries :)