CONSUMERS

What Google knows about me (and probably you, too)

Will Flannigan

The Republic | azcentral.com

Google collects data on billions of users worldwide
You can download the data Google has on you at takeout.google.com

If you're like me, convenience often trumps prudence.

You're probably logged into a Google product right now.

And so are billions of other people.

More than 80 percent of internet search traffic worldwide was fielded by Google in March, according to NetMarketShare, a company that compiles data from approximately 100 million internet browsing sessions per month.

But Google's reach extends far beyond internet searches.

The company operates a suite of products, including Gmail, Maps, Chrome, YouTube, the Google Play Store and the Android operating system.

Seven Google products have more than 1 billion users, and the company has a cache of data on many of them.

Last year, Google announced that Android surpassed 2 billion active monthly users.

The news of Cambridge Analytica's use of Facebook data to target Americans and help influence their political views put major tech companies, and the data they collect about their users, under a microscope.

It spurred many to wonder what Facebook — and, by extension, Google and other companies — know about us.

Dylan Curran, an Irish web developer, posted a Twitter thread that inspired me to take a dive into my own Google data.

"Want to freak yourself out?" the thread began, "I'm gonna show just how much of your information the likes of Facebook and Google store about you without you even realising it."

Curran continued his examination for 37 tweets, pulling in more than 165,000 retweets and 259,000 likes.

So I downloaded my Google data, and Curran was right: I freaked out.

Note: This is data I shared with Google while logged into my account.

Why look at Google?

Google predates Facebook by more than six years.

I've (mostly) been conscientious about what I share on Facebook. Sure, I made some social media missteps in college (who didn't?), but my relationship with Facebook is entirely by choice.

Google, however, has been a major provider of utility in my life. I've used the company's products to email, navigate, write and research. Google search is my homepage, and I use Google's Internet browser, Chrome.

I opened my Google account my freshman year of college. I opened my Facebook account a couple of years later.

In other words, Google knows much more about me than Facebook ever will. It knows things about me that I don't necessarily want to share with my friends or family. It knows things about me that I prefer to keep private.

How to download your Google data

Getting access to the data Google stores on you is simple.

Visit Google's Takeout service . Takeout was launched in 2011 to give users a quick and simple way to download the data that the company has stored.

It takes minutes to complete a form requesting your data from Google. The company will send you an email with a link to your data once it processes your request.

It took several hours for my data to come in.

My Google thumbprint in four ZIP files

Google sent me an email with four files several hours after I submitted my request.

The company sent me four ZIP archives of data. In total, my data cache was more than 9 gigabytes.

"Your Google data archive is ready," the email subject line said.

These four archives held within them everything Google knew about me. The archives unpacked into more than 30 folders, each containing application-specific data.

What I found

The files seemed endless. Each named after a service, each containing troves of information from my 10-plus years using Google products.

Frankly, I felt uncomfortable opening these files at work. I wasn't sure what was going to be included.

Google knows where I've been

In the files Google provided was a folder named "location history."

Google Maps is my preferred application for directions, and it has been since 2007, apparently.

The first time I used Google Maps to navigate was on June 12, 2007. I was seeking directions from Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, to Manchester, Tennessee.

I made the search from my Android phone as I tried to find my way to a music festival more than 700 miles away from my starting point.

Nearly every Google Map search I've made since was documented in a file that has more than 3,200 entries.

LOCATION SERVICES

In addition to my map searches, Google also tracked my whereabouts via my Location History.

I activated this service on my Android phone on June 27, 2013, and deactivated it on July 17, 2017. During that time, Google pinged my latitude and longitude more than 20,000 times.

Google says its Location History service helps provide better recommendations based on where you've been. For example, it may provide an alternate route for your daily commute if traffic is piling up.

You can turn the service off at any time.

To see what Google knows about where you've been, use the company's Timeline tool.

Who I've emailed

So. Many. Emails. I'm an email hoarder, there's no doubt about it. My Gmail account constantly warns me that I'm quickly running out of space.

The file containing information about my email was the bulk of my data, weighing in at more than 5 gigabytes. Currently, my account has more than 67,000 emails in it, my data revealed.

I'm embarrassed by that fact.

My data contained drafts, junk, spam and sent email.

Google announced in 2017 it would stop scanning users' email for information to provide a more personalized ad experience.

... and what I've read and watched online

I've been an insatiable news reader since college, and every news story I've read while logged into my account was recorded.

I have read more than 3,200 news stories that I found on the Google News platform since 2007, my data says.

My tastes have changed over time, of course. Early on, music and entertainment news dominated my clicks. Recently my tastes have been more refined: public safety, technology and political stories now make up the bulk of my news consumption.

It's easy to see how the company can use my data to recommend other news stories to me.

Google News launched in 2002.

YOUTUBE

YouTube hasn't always been a Google product. Google purchased the online video platform in 2006. My experience with YouTube began four years later. Since then, I have watched 21,000 videos on YouTube while logged into my account. The first video I viewed? A performance at a music festival.

See a pattern forming?

... and what I'm working on

Google Drive, Google Docs and Google Sheets are important tools for me.

Google launched its Drive service in 2012. Since then, two trillion files have been uploaded to its servers, according to Business Insider.

According to my data, I've uploaded or have shared more than 700 files on Google Drive. This includes files I created in Google Docs.

... my complete search history

This was the motherlode. Google has a detailed history of every search I've made while logged into my Google account.

I have made more than 17,000 search requests since 2007, my Google data revealed.

My earliest-recorded search was "the davinci code symbols," followed up by "robert langdon." Those searches were made in 2006. I was a big fan of author Dan Brown.

Google processes 3.5 billion internet searches per day, Internet Live Stats reports.

... other things

With Google Takeout, users can download information from 37 different areas. Though I'm an active Google user, many of the company's products I do not use, such as Google Fit, a fitness tracking app.

Other information may include payments you've sent (Google Pay Send), photos you've taken (Google Photos) and books you've read (Google Play Books).

How does Google use this information?

Google uses your information in a plethora of ways. Most of the data the it collects falls into three buckets: things you do, things you create and things that make you "you," according to the company's privacy website.

Google promises that it does not sell your data.

The data is used to improve user experience, such as providing quicker search results or recommending a restaurant to you based on your previous queries.

And, of course, advertising. Google lets users tweak ad settings to deliver a more personalized ad experience. Visit adsettings.google.com to modify.

Google also allows users to tweak what data is being stored. Visit privacy.google.com to learn more.

How to delete your Google data

Google lets users delete their data. Just like requesting the data, deleting data is straightforward and simple. Visit Google's my activity page From there you can choose to delete application-specific data, or choose to wipe everything.

Deleting your data, Google says, may impact your experience with Google products. For example: deleting YouTube data could affect the types of videos the service recommends to you, according to a Google spokesperson.

What else? Just Google it

If you have any other questions about how Google uses your data or what data it collects, you can always visit Google.com and conduct a search. And, yes. I realized the irony in that statement.