Does Google know who I am? (A Privacy Deep Dive)
Written by Yashmeet Gambhir and Nisreen Bahrainwala
Back in the early 2000s, Google was a simple search engine. You asked it a question, it brought you relevant information. Now, it is so much more than that. In our era of technology, Google and other websites collect a vast amount of information, which is in turn used for various purposes, some of which might benefit you, and some of which may conflict with your personal interests.
It is easy to trust what lies behind a sleek, well-designed user interface, but one should always be cautious of what data one leaves behind. When Yash and I started researching for this article, the first thing we did was use Google Takeout to view exactly what information Google had on us. In addition, we took note of each of our privacy settings, which differed greatly. A snapshot of our key settings for both our Google Chrome browser and account can be seen in the table below:
Notes on how/what Google is tracking
As you can see from the table above, Google can track your actions on both a browser level and account level. For example, even if you aren’t logged in, a normal browser window will keep track of bookmarks and your search history. If you are also logged into your Google account, your search history and other metrics (as listed in the table) can be kept and linked to your account/synced across devices. The most frightening and seemingly invasive one of these is location tracking/history.
When you choose to disable saving location history, Google lets you know that disabling location history doesn’t stop them from tracking your location — however, many users can miss this. Google is still able to track your location through your general web and app activity in the following ways:
- Your location is identified and stored whenever you open Google Maps
- Daily weather updates (for Android phones) can roughly pinpoint your location
- Some searches that have nothing to do with your location can also pinpoint your longitude and latitude, which can be linked to your account
Aside from location, another key way of controlling your personal data Google collects about you lies in its “Web and App activity” interface. This is where Google tracks and collects all your activity on any Google service, some major ones being Search, Maps, and Play. You can check out your own activity here.
What control do you have?
Luckily, Google has tools in place to help you safely delete the data collected about you. The place to do that is in your Google Account settings, under Data & Personalization. You can use Activity Controls to delete certain data points from your search history, YouTube History, or location history. You can even disable ad recommendations or change your ad preferences directly.
What features would you lose?
Okay, so Google apps track your location, stalk your search history, and understand the videos you interact with on YouTube — you might be ready to delete your Web and App activity right away. That could be a great idea, but tracking your every move on the web can be mutually beneficial. You’ve probably already thought of the primary use case of all this information.
The ability to show personalized ads is probably the most infamous use case, and promises some mutual benefits — if Google can provide companies with specific information on users, companies can reach the audience they desire, and we as the users get ads that are actually relevant to our interests.
It’s important to note that Google does not explicitly sell your individual information. Instead, it uses all the data it’s collected on you to create a unique personal profile with all your interests and other creepy predictions they’ve made about you (do you really think I’m married, Google?). They can then share this profile with other companies. It’s worth it to check out your profile here.
Now ad personalization can sometimes feel creepy, and we should think intentionally about how much we benefit from it — but what other core features could you miss out on by deleting your Web Activity?
Amazingly accurate content recommendations
- YouTube: The algorithm is scary good at providing you really entertaining videos from channels you’ve watched previously and channels it thinks you might like (However, I can’t note this benefit without pointing to one of the most popular harms of this system: addiction)
- Google News: If you’re an Android user, swiping left on the home screen sends you to a screen of auto-curated news articles specifically for your interests
- Maps: The “Explore” and “For You” tabs can give you some spicy recommendations on where to visit or eat next
Relevant Search
- Auto-completing what you search
- Giving you search results relevant to your location, interests, and what you’ve previously searched
- Showing you links you’ve already clicked on (highlighted with purple)
- Shopping: When you search for a product on Google Shopping, the product results are also sorted by relevance using your data profile
Location Timeline
- If you enable location history, Google creates a map of all of the places you’ve been and allows you to visualize a timeline of your travels. You can even see pictures you took at any places you traveled to. Thus, it might be an interesting feature to enable whenever you go traveling
Now, you may be thinking, “what about Incognito Mode?”
Google’s Incognito mode has instant allure. The dark theme, the mysterious logo, it all points to somewhere that feels safer. However, this is a relatively false sense of security, which is further undermined as soon as you log into a third-party site, like Amazon or your email. Here is what incognito mode can and can’t do.
Why do cookies matter?
Cookies are packets of information that are saved on your computer’s hard drive by websites you visit. Normally there is no malicious intent here. An example of what a cookie could be used for is to customize a welcome page on a website. Rather than just having a generic message, it would have your name on it as it would “remember” you from the information you gave it on your previous visit. There are two main types of cookies, session cookies, and persistent cookies. Session cookies are not saved on the hard drive and they are deleted when you close your browser. Typically, these will store information that is not personally identifying. Persistent cookies are the ones stored on the hard drive, and they have either set expiration dates, or one has to manually delete them. These will typically store more personal preferences and information. In my welcome page example above, a persistent cookie would be used to make that possible.
Besides the two types of cookies, there are first and third-party cookies. First-party cookies are a designation for cookies created and stored by the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies are files from a website that you are not visiting at the time. These may be used for the purpose of learning about your web browsing habits to then direct ads according to your preferences.
Incognito mode helps with this as it doesn’t allow websites to store persistent cookies, and clears all session cookies as soon as you exit the browser. It also blocks 3rd party cookies, so that advertisements will not be personalized based on the searches in the incognito.
So now what?
Clearly, when one uses the internet, a bit of privacy is lost. The question now is to evaluate the tradeoffs between privacy and functionality. Nisreen’s method for browsing the internet is described below:
When browsing the internet, I normally have all my tabs related to research or coursework tied to my account. I want these to be saved in my browser search history, and I want recommendations generated from these searches. When I look up things that are unrelated to this, I use an incognito tab. This keeps my personal interests (like music) apart from my professional interests (browsing StackOverflow for a solution to bugs). My browser profile and my google chrome account are not synced, so none of my bookmarks will follow me to other computers. This in turn allows less information to be stored on my google account.
I have ad personalization turned off, and I block all third-party cookies, and regularly check which sites have things saved to my computer. I also use an ad blocker, so I generally stay as far away from ads as I possibly can. For some, this may seem extreme, but for me it is perfect. If I am going to buy something, it is generally not from an ad. I would rather get recommendations from friends, or search up people who have reviewed products that solve my use case and make a decision based on my own research.
As mentioned before, recommendations and personalized search results are one of the major alluring factors to google chrome and google accounts. In spite of this, I have almost all personalization features turned off. For me, I use the internet in a way that does not need personalization. I treat it as a library, simply pulling information from it as needed. If I do need recommendations into a subject (say I am learning more about black holes) I would not let google point me to articles I should read, rather I would seek out medium posts or other guides written by experts that point me to relevant sources. At the end of the day, I prefer to leave my digital footprint as small as possible, and since I don’t use the personalization features, it was an easy trade-off for me to make. However, this may not be the case for many others.
I would suggest then saving web and app activity, but only for a set time span, and then delete it afterward. This ensures that you get the personalization you desire, but Google will not hold onto your information forever, and your profile will be based on a shorter timeframe of data, allowing for more variability.
Looking forward
Last week (3/3/2021) news broke that Google pledged to no longer track individuals as they browse the internet. If this seems too good to be true, you might be right. We know that Google aims to phase out 3rd party cookies by 2022. In addition, now they say they will no longer track users through the web for the purposes of advertising. Be sure to check back in a few weeks for a new article detailing what this shift in policy means and how it will affect your privacy.
