Google has introduced a new “About me” page which displays your collected user data from across various Google services and allows you to update, limit or delete the information. The page displays the information available to Google services such as Photos, YouTube and Drive. The page also links to privacy settings and Google’s Privacy Checkup tool, which allows users to view the data collected by Google across various platforms. The roll out of the new “About me” section is a good time to check what information the company possesses and to familiarize yourself with Google’s default data collection practices, including tracking your movement, organizing your photos based on facial recognition, and using your name and image in advertisements.  

Location History

In Section 3 of the Google Privacy Checkup, “Personalize your Google experience,” click on “Location History” and then click the Manage Activity button to see a map of your tracked activities. Location History “Creates a private map of where you go with your sign-in devices in order to provide improved map searches, commute routes, and more.”

Google’s Location History lists the locations you’ve visited, including a list of Most Visited locations – for me this list included my home, the closest subway station to my home, my office, and a restaurant near my office I frequently go to for lunch. Additionally, it noted a recent trip I took to a nearby city and tracked my movements therein. It also lists the businesses I’ve visited – it knew most of the restaurants I’d been to in the past year, as well as parks, subway stations, and bars. 

Using Your Name & Photo in Advertisements

By default, Google may utilize your profile name, photo, and recorded activity as an endorsement in its advertisements. By changing this setting, “You can limit the visibility of activity outside of ads by deleting the activity or changing its visibility settings.” 

Facial Recognition 

Google’s machine learning algorithms have been programmed to identify buildings, landscapes, animals and events such as birthdays in the pictures you upload to Google Photos. This identification feature also extends to faces, as “Google Photos creates models of the faces in your photos in order to group similar faces together.” The facial recognition feature is available on the Android, iPhone, iPad and the web version of Google Photos but may not be accessible to some users outside the United States. Google allows users to turn this feature off but it is on by default: “By keeping this feature on, you're letting us know that it's OK for us to use face models of people in your photos, including you. Note that if you delete the Google Photos app, the face models and your photos will not be deleted. If you want the face models deleted, turn this feature off in settings.”

YouTube History

Google keeps an accurate record of your YouTube viewing and search history – my search history accounted for all my searches on YouTube, from all of my devices, for over a year. Both YouTube viewing and search history can be deleted by the user and the history tracking feature can be disabled.  

Robots Don’t Know Everything

Reviewing Google’s privacy settings was surprising in a different way, as it also reveals some of the holes in Google’s collection of user data: Google knew where I lived, worked, the restaurants where I ate, but under its Advertising Settings, it knew my age range (25 to 34) but it didn’t know my gender.