The 'Mata-Mata' Approach: Google Monitors Your Activity 24 Hours a Day

The internet’s crown jewel label is often attached to Google. After all, nearly every online activity uses Google’s services. For example, Google Search is the most basic tool for finding information online. There is also Google Maps for locating places, Gmail for exchanging emails, and Google Photos for storing photos and videos.

Google’s services do indeed assist daily activity. However, internet users leave digital traces every time they access Google. This digital trail can feel like a treasure trove for advertisers, enabling them to profile internet users to maximise promotions for goods and services.

Even when users disable location history, data collection continues. In this context, Google, as the world’s largest search engine, collects substantial amounts of user information.

If you’re uncomfortable with this, there is a simple way to stop Google from tracking your activity online. Quoting from Cnet, here are the easy steps:

1. Sign into your Google account;

2. Choose Manage your Google Account;

3. In Privacy & Personalisation, select Manage your Data & Personalisation;

4. Next you will see the Activity Controls; scroll down and select Manage your Activity Controls;

5. You will see a box named Web & App Activity; toggle it off; and

6. A notification will appear asking you to confirm you understand what is being done by turning off this setting, then choose Pause.

After completing all the steps above, Google’s monitoring feature will be switched off. You will no longer see ads and search recommendations that are relevant to you.

On the other hand, the ads will be less relevant and search recommendations less useful. Your personal experience will no longer be available after the feature is deactivated.

As a reminder, you will not lose data stored when tracking is turned off. This will be useful in the future because Google will not store information going forward. Nevertheless, data already stored will not be deleted. According to CNBC International, here are some data Google collects through its various services:

1. Name, gender and date of birth

2. Personal mobile number

3. Google searches

4. Sites visited

5. Interests, ranging from sports to favourite foods and drinks

6. Workplace

7. Home address

8. Videos watched

If you are curious, you can discover what personal data Google collects. Here’s how:

Types of Ads You Like

Sign into Google, then click Manage Ads Settings. This reveals the topics of ads you prefer according to Google. It will show data such as gender, age and ads you have blocked.

Places Visited

The Google Locations History Page shows the locations you have visited. This data is stored on Google Maps.

YouTube Activity

You can also view activity within YouTube. Access it via the Search feature and YouTube Watch.

Delete Your Online Footprint

Besides ensuring you are not tracked online, you can delete your digital footprint on your phone. The steps are to regularly delete web history in the browser.

Here are the steps:

1. Google Chrome

To delete history in Google Chrome, click the three dots to open the menu. Then select Settings and in the sidebar open Privacy & Security.

Next, choose Clear browsing data. You must select the time range you want to delete, then click Clear data.

Note: if you have set the browser to sync with another computer via a Google account, clearing history on one device will also clear it on other devices.

2. Mozilla Firefox

Click the three horizontal lines in the top right to access the menu. Then select Settings > Privacy & Security and scroll down to Cookies & Site Data.

You can delete all data and manage data to control what is deleted. Also tick the box that clears browsing data when Firefox closes if you don’t want to do this manually.

3. Safari

In Safari, first open the menu and click Clear History. Choose the time range of data you want to delete and click Clear History.

When you delete history in Safari, you will not have an option to delete various data types. Cookies and cache files will also be deleted.

4. Microsoft Edge

Windows 11 users can clear their history by clicking the three dots on the right. Then choose Settings from the menu that appears.

In the Privacy tab, find Clear browsing data and click Choose what to clear. Select items from the list, including browsing history and cache data. Finally click Clear Now.

5. Opera

First, click the Settings icon on the right side of the address bar. In the menu that appears, scroll to Privacy & Security next to Browsing data and click Clear.

Then you can select the data type you want to delete, including specifying a time range. Once completed, click Clear Data.

These are the steps you can take to stop Google from tracking you for a full 24 hours, as well as delete your online history. I hope you find this information useful.