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“When you use Google services, we you trust your information.”
So of course they say, in the first line, terms and conditions Privacy engine world’s most important search.
That may not surprise you. We all know that Google collects information about us, right?
But exactly how much and what kind of information are we talking about?
Your name, address, your age, your email. Your phone model, your cell phone provider, your plan and your telephone usage and Internet.
The words you use most often in your emails. All emails you have written or received, including spam . The names of your contacts and their addresses and telephone numbers.
Photos you take with your Android phone, even if you delete and although the ups never any social network. The sites you go , inside and outside the country; date where you were and route that you took. How fast did you get . The credit card or debit card that you use to pay.
So Google knows a lot about you, right? And whose fault is it? Yours, of course “
Lee Munson, a security expert
All the websites you’ve visited in Google, how frequency and what you saw in each. in what language you want. what you surf time. who have you talked Hangout. what video you like. what you hear music.
These and other categories including document privacy policy Google (here the link, English) and contains 2,874 words.
in my case, this translates into more than 5 gigabyte s data to go back, at least the last three years. where I got the number? I’ll tell you right away.
“so Google knows a lot about you, right?” he tells BBC World Lee Munson , security researcher Comparitech.com.
“ And whose fault is it? Yours, of course . People trust too much and shares without thinking too much about themselves, when the reward is an account free email, a couple of extra gigabytes of storage in the cloud or the possibility of belonging to a virtual world where are their friends and acquaintances “.
Everything does so very legal because I scored this magic box that said” agree “at the end of the terms and conditions.
But let the discussion” philosophical “what should and should not know, or what we should or should not do to prevent known or not known, to the end.
Let me show you how I got those 5 gB of data. And how you can find yours.
“My account”
Since June last year, Google collects all the information it collects about its users in a place unified called “my account” or “my account” in English.
you have a Google account if you have made a mail Gmail or even if you initiated the session on a phone or Android tablet, if you have worked with Google Docs documents or are registered on YouTube.
If you have never done anything like that, congratulations. Google will still have your data, but you can not associate your name . You can check if you are one of them.
According to data cited by Business Insider in January this year, it is estimated that there are about 2,200 million active users. So is quite likely that your name is on the list .
Let us start with your Gmail account. The circle in the upper left corner of your initial is the place to start.
you will get a screen like the one shown below. I underlined in red the “interesting” in terms of the information it stores.
categories “Safety Check” and “privacy review” are two windows that let you adjust and restrict information directly
But we’ll keep the option marked with the date:.. the tab “My activity”
“My activity” opens again, endless options.
The view that I show below is the general (here is in English, although account is set to “Spanish” as a primary language). Includes default activity day on YouTube categories, search, ads, news and support section, item by item.
But you can filter by date and specific product by clicking where indicated the arrow.
we also aim where you have the option to clean your history.
before you can make effective the measure will appear Google message that reads: “Your activity can make Google more useful you with better transportation options through maps and better search results”
you decide if the argument convinces you.
In the upper corner left, in the figure of the “hamburger” (the three horizontal stripes menu icon) opens another world of data.
Use the option ng “other activity in Google” to access what the company saves on your transfers, your phone and more.
For reasons entirely unknown to me, my location history is off . But as you may notice in the screenshot below, if you were on would have a record by date of my movements, marked on a map.
All I have done by way of Google Maps, however yes you are registered. To see all the data in this category again “my activity” and filters the result by “maps” and “maps timeline”.
Google me gives the option to tell the direction of my house and my work . Thanks, Google, I think you know enough of me anyway.
Another category is revealing ad . To get there, go back to step one, “my account”.
Press “ad settings”. Once there, go to “manage the tool Ads Preferences” and discover what Google thinks you are interested in (based on what you want more often).
Some categories are at least curious (billiards ?, poultry ?, ¿Bollywood and South Asian cinema?). But I am a woman and my old Google has it very clear.
Yes, just below that, you click on “more information on how Google ads work,” you find a release that indicates that Google “does not sell your information on anyone.”
“much of our business is based on showing ads, both on Google services and sites and mobile applications that are our partners. the ads help us to keep free for all service, “he says.
But really want know how much does Google know about you?
Yes, there are more .
in fact, you can ask Google to you d . é a copy of all the information stored about you
Go to “my account” (remember: upper right corner, the circle with your initial). Just below “ad settings” is “control your content.” Choose that option. You will find a screen like this:
“Create file” will take you to a window with the option to decide which services you want to find out. In my case, asked all.
Although Google warns that collect data can take even d ies , in a couple of hours had received my -three files in total in my email Gmail.
lower them took another couple of hours. And some of them open was a bit tricky. Some come in formats that are not common for simple accustomed to editing text and photos, as .json or .mbox deadly
My 5GB are relatively rare. And as you can see, for lack of use, in several categories no data. For example, in addition to “location”, it happens to have “pause” functions “device information” and “voice and audio activity”.
But my -a post which arrived after finding a program to open .mbox- has them all. Read, including Spam and Deletions ( “Trash”). You can get an idea for the next screenshot.
N or you can access a list of “most used words” in my post, but Google recognizes that there is a “fully automated” process monitoring messages .
“for example, if you’ve recently received lots of messages about photography or cameras, you may be interested in an offer from a local camera store. on the other hand, if you’ve reported these messages as junk mail, you’re probably not interested in the offer. This type of automated processing it is the method that many mail providers use to offer things like filters junk mail and error corrector “he says in one of its help pages.
And, perhaps even more amazing, also has photos. Each and every one that I’ve taken with my phone, for more than two years. Erased or not. Shared or not.
How is this possible?
The short answer is because everything has a price.
Do not pay your mail or your service videos on hard cash, but data .
As Lee Munson, security researcher says of Comparitech, “information is the new currency”.
“It’s a gold mine. For Google has represented billions of dollars,” it backs Jonathan Sander, vice president of Product Strategy of Lieberman Software.
And that’s Google that consistent with its stated interest to be transparent, allowing you to see albeit by a method a little engorroso- what you know.
But what about Facebook or other pages, large or small, they ask you a mail, an address, a credit card?
“ If you want to know who is tracking use this rule: if the service is free, your data is the product “, says Sander told the BBC.
” Everyone does, from the security services (government, supposedly) to the humble blog only you and a couple of other people read, “said Munson.
is this legal? Since you say that you “agree” with these Terms and Conditions do not read, just you’re delivering.
This does not mean that no one can dispute.
” the legality and interpretation of the law depends on local regulations and guidelines, “he tells BBC Mark James, an expert in security firm ESET.
” Google and Europe have clashed frequently on issues as privacy, monopoly right to be forgotten, data collection, etc. in some cases the company has been fined, but mostly it has been determined that operates within the legal framework “.
What to do
we are at their mercy then?
The experts we consulted agree that there is very little that can be done.
“you have to make a conscious and concerted effort to avoid being followed. for example, not using Google or doing different activities in different, or different accounts machines,” says James.
“consider turning off the location using email accounts that do not actually use to go shopping sites, using dates slightly wrong birth wherever legally possible and never, never, you tell Facebook, Twitter or other social network what you ate for breakfast , let alone your personal details and the main events of your life, “advises Munson.
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