Online Privacy & Dark Web

Beginner

5 min read 5 stepsApril 20, 2026Verified April 2026

How to Control What Google Knows About You

Google collects data about your searches, location, YouTube history, and more by default. Here's how to review, limit, and delete that data from your Google account.

At a Glance

Go to your Google Account privacy settings

~21s

Open a web browser and go to myaccount.google.com. Make sure you are signed in with your Google account. In the left-hand navigation menu, click "Data & Privacy." This is the central location for all privacy and data controls in your Google account. Take a moment to scroll through the page to see what options are available before making any changes.

Review and adjust Web & App Activity

~32s

Under "History settings," click on "Web & App Activity." This controls whether Google saves your searches, site visits, and app interactions. If you want to stop new activity from being saved, toggle the switch to Off. If you want to keep it on but limit how long data is retained, click "Auto-delete" and choose 3 months or 18 months. Google will automatically delete older data on a rolling basis.

Quick Tip

Quick Tip: Setting auto-delete to 18 months is a good middle ground — Google still personalizes your experience, but data older than 18 months is regularly cleared.

Pause YouTube History and Location History

~24s

Back on the Data & Privacy page, find "YouTube History" and "Location History" under History settings. Click each one and review the options. Pausing YouTube History means Google will not save what videos you watch or what you search for on YouTube. Pausing Location History means Google Maps and Google apps will stop saving a timeline of where you physically go. Both settings have the same auto-delete options as Web & App Activity.

Delete your existing Google activity

~33s

On the Data & Privacy page, click "My Activity." Here you can see everything Google has saved. To delete everything, click the "Delete" button, then choose "All time" from the options. You can also select a specific date range if you only want to remove recent activity. Google will confirm the deletion — this action cannot be undone, so make sure you want to remove the data before confirming.

Warning

Deleting your activity will affect personalization features. For example, Google Maps may no longer remember your home and work addresses, and YouTube recommendations will reset. You can always re-enter those details after the deletion.

Check your Ad Settings to see how Google targets you

~25s

On the Data & Privacy page, scroll down to find "Ad settings" or go directly to adssettings.google.com. This page shows the interests and demographic categories Google has inferred about you based on your activity. You can turn off individual interest categories or disable personalized ads entirely by toggling the "Ad personalization" switch to Off. Turning it off means you will still see ads, but they will not be tailored specifically to you.

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Google's services are free because the company uses data about your behavior to show you targeted ads. By default, Google collects quite a lot: every search you run, every YouTube video you watch, your physical location throughout the day, voice activity from Google Assistant, and activity from apps and websites that use Google's advertising system.

This data is stored in your Google account and can be reviewed, limited, or deleted. Many people have never looked at this page, and they are often surprised by how detailed it is. The good news is that Google gives you genuine control over most of these settings — it is not completely hidden.

To get started, open a web browser and go to myaccount.google.com. Sign in with your Google account if you are not already signed in. This is your main control panel for everything related to your Google account, including privacy and data settings.

Once there, click on "Data & Privacy" in the left-hand menu. This section shows you all of the activity Google is saving for your account. You will see entries for Web & App Activity, Location History, and YouTube History. Each one has its own on/off switch, and each can also be set to automatically delete data after 3 months, 18 months, or not at all.

If you want to see everything Google has recorded about you, scroll down and click "My Activity." This shows a timeline of your Google searches, YouTube watches, Maps queries, and more. You can delete individual entries, delete everything from a specific time period, or delete all activity at once.

The Ad Settings page (accessible from the same Data & Privacy menu) shows you the categories Google thinks you fit into for advertising purposes — things like age, interests, and income brackets it has inferred. You can turn off personalized ads entirely, which will not reduce the number of ads you see but will make them less specifically targeted to you.

Finally, if you ever want to download everything Google knows about you, use the Google Takeout tool at takeout.google.com. It lets you export your entire Google history, photos, email, and more as a downloadable archive.

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