Many people understandably believe once you’ve turned off Location History on your cell phone, you’re no longer being tracked by Google.
Unfortunately, that’s the wrong assumption.
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Turning off Location History only stops the history part, so there won’t be a timeline of where you traveled. Even if you have disabled Location History, Google will continue to track you if you use Google maps, get weather updates or use the search browser. The issue is a problem for both Android and iOS users who run the Google Maps app. At any rate, your other apps are still tracking and time-stamping you wherever you go.
Photo Credit: Pixnio
To be as traceless as you possible can and still have a cell phone, you have to find and disable Google Web & App Activity. And you have to dig deep.
First, sign into your Google account. Access your account settings and choose Data and Personalization. You’ll see a list of all your activity on the Google logs if you go to Activity Controls and select Google Web & App Activity.
To stop the logging of your daily activities, uncheck the box. Click Manage Activity and you’ll see everything you’ve done since you created your account.
Here you can set Google to automatically data their data on you either every three or every 18 months by selecting Choose to Delete Automatically (or it could say Choose How Long to Keep) and pick your preferred timeframe.
Google will ask if you want to confirm. So yeah, do that. 😉
Photo Credit: Pixnio
Yes, you need to protect your privacy, so PLEASE take a moment to go deep through your settings. If anything looks unclear, toggle it off. It’s up to you to defend yourself against invasive data collecting.
What do you think about how little privacy we have these days? Let us know in the comments!
