These days, Google gets a lot of criticism when it comes to privacy issues. And that’s right. It’s a lot of your personal data, and if the recently released Google Photos are any indication, they have no plans to slow down.
Watch! Image via Shutterstock.
But there is some good news. Google is at least trying to be transparent about this. Instead of burying the settings that let you opt out of some of the crazier trackers, they now put a lot of settings front and center (not all, of course, this is Google).
Google has released a new brand My account page (complete with Material Design quality) where you can keep track of everything related to your account. This section also includes two testing tools: Privacy Checkup and Security Checkup.
At first glance, the Privacy Checkup tool might look simple. It’s just a step-by-step process with toggles to turn features on or off, right? Wrong. There are pop-ups, a help page to read, a confirmation page to avoid, and a clever Google PR to read through.
So, for the greater good, we created this guide (yes, like the game guide you look up every time you get stuck on a mission in GTA) to help you out. Start.
Show these profile tabs to visitors: First, we’ll take a look at the world, your friends or not, see when they visit your Google+ page (if, ever).
Google+ has special tabs for the profile page and here you can turn it off image, YouTube/Videos, +1 And Comment. With all of them turned off, no stranger on the internet can access all your Play Store photos, videos, +1s or reviews.
Speaking of Google+, the social network that allows you to hide everything but your name, profile picture, and cover photo from strangers.
Google+ Community: If you don’t want the world to know about the weird Google+ Community you’re in, uncheck this option.
Photos and videos: The first option prevents Google from using your publicly shared photos in any of Google’s services. Right now, that includes backgrounds for Chromecast and Google Fiber but tomorrow that could change.
In the second option you can convert Google Find my face feature. This feature allows you and others to tag your face in a photo, and when that happens, Google will create a face map for you. This is then used to intelligently identify all the photos you are at.
Shared endorsements: This is an important one, and where your name and face can appear in a place you might not want – advertising. And Google knows this, because disabling Shared confirmation is a 4-step process.
First, click Edit your shared confirmation button. A pop-up will show a description of what the process means, and you’ll see examples of how your publicly shared reviews and +1s might appear in your ad. Scroll down and click the checkbox. This will prompt another window to make sure you know what you’re doing. Click Continue and finally, Finished.
2. Help people connect with you
Here you will see the primary phone number connected to your Google account. This setting means that once someone has your phone number, they can easily look you up on Hangouts or Google+. If you do not share your phone number with anyone, this setting will not affect you. A side effect of enabling this feature means that if someone happens to know your phone number, they can easily link it to you.
From here, you can disable the amount of your YouTube viewing activity shared with friends and the world. You can choose to keep all your liked videos, saved playlists and subscriptions private from your friends and followers.
Speaking of your YouTube channel, you can choose to post to the feed when you add new videos to a public playlist, when you like the video, or when you subscribe to the channel.
4. Personalize Your Google Experience
Ok guys, here’s the big deal. The options you choose here determine exactly what information Google receives, stores, uses, and shares (with third parties or with the web).
Web & App Activity: If you’re a heavy user of Google, you probably shouldn’t turn off this option. This option allows Google to keep a history of all your searches and everything you browse on all devices with Chrome. Yes, that’s a lot of information, but it’s the same information that leads to better search results in Chrome, updates from sites and topics in Google Now, etc.
Location History: Please disable and clear this history as it will not greatly affect the way you use Maps to navigate. Features like traffic and navigation updates should work just fine. The only difference is that Google won’t store all the location data it tracks from your Android phone (usually continuously).
Device Info: The Device Info setting keeps a record of all the devices on which you use Google services. If you click Operations Management button, you will be taken to a page showing a daily history of all your connected devices.
Voice and Audio Activity: When you use Google Now voice search or Googled function, your voice is recorded and used to improve the service. You can disable this recording option but then you won’t have access to always-on mode Googled feature.
YouTube Search History: This is simple enough, you can stop Google from keeping your YouTube search history.
Watch history on YouTube: YouTube has a View history feature where you get a list of every video you ever watched. This option allows you to turn it off.
5. Make ads more relevant to you
This setting is nothing more than a shortcut to the ever-present detailed ad settings page. But never mind, you’ve come this far, check this out.
After you click Manage your ad settings, you’ll be taken to a page that doesn’t look plain and doesn’t use Material Design either. You will see two columns for Advertising on Google And Google Ads on the Web. Here you’ll find data about you used to target specific ads based on your interests and demographics.
If you want Google to not do that and instead show you only generic ads, you can click opt out link in either column. Obviously, this will not disable Google ads. You will still see them but now they will not use your personal data. Additionally, you can delete data such as age, gender, and interests that Google has for this particular use case.
How did you do?
What did you disable? Did you give up midway? Share with us in the comments below.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
