What Google Knows About Me
Wanna have a good scare. Go to Takeout.google.com to find out what Google knows about you. You can export all this data and save it locally. However, remember that if someone hacked your account, they could also export it. There are about 50 different type of activities, this is just a sample:
Browsing History
Location History
YouTube History
Google Meet Recording
Hangout
Calendar
Contacts
Drive
Shopping
Photos
Fit
And much much more…
As you can see it may take time to export all of that info
So what can you do about this?
You can go to https://myaccount.google.com/data-and-privacy and start toggling off anything you don't want Google to share.
And while you are there, go to https://myaccount.google.com/security and turn on "2-step verification". This will protect your account if someone for example phished you and got hold of your password. Now, because they won't have the code sent to your phone, the password would not be enough to take over your account. Not convinced? Check How Multi Factor Authentication Can Save You
Lastly, scroll up a little and look at the "Recent Security Activity". Is there any activity you don't recognize? Like someone logged in from a location you don't recognize, ect. Now, Do this every so often.. It's good to keep tabs on what's going on with your account to keep bad people out.
Gabriel Friedlander
Gabriel Friedlander is the Founder & CEO of Wizer, whose mission is to make basic security awareness a basic life skill for everyone. Wizer has been rapidly growing since being founded in 2019, and now serves 20K+ organizations across 50 countries. Before founding Wizer, Gabriel was the co-founder of ObserveIT (acquired by Proofpoint). With over a decade of experience studying human behavior, he is a prolific content creator on social media, focusing on online safety to elevate public understanding of digital risks. His engaging 1-minute videos have captured the attention of millions worldwide, going viral for their impactful messages.