We all know and use Google services. The largest internet company provides a huge range of services, many of which are free. Gmail, Google Drive, Google Allo and a list of others can be used completely free of charge.
Free? Not exactly, as each of us who uses the company provides valuable information that Google can use for advertising. It is also known that the lion's share of the company's profits comes from advertising.
You've probably already noticed it: you use Google Search to search for a car you're interested in and suddenly, as if by magic, ads from local car dealers start appearing.
How much does Google really know about you? The answer may surprise you.
Your online footprints
The most obvious Google tracking can be found in Google Web History, which records your past searches across all devices where you're signed in to your Google account. Web History is supposed to benefit you because it allows Google to tailor future search results to your preferences based on your history. But your search history is also very useful to advertisers.
Equally important information comes from the history of the pages you visit through Google. The company collects information whether you are logged into a Google account or not. This is achieved by using tracking cookies as well as information from AdSense and Analytics, other Google services. The company can learn which websites you like, in what order you visit them, how much time you spend on them, and much more.
The profile created from this information is still yours, in the sense that it is based on information such as your IP address, browser analysis and the plugins you use. So instead of the company collecting names and physical addresses, it still gathers information to create a unique profile through your activities and preferences.
And that profile is used to serve you relevant ads. You can see all the information the company has collected about you at Google's Ad Settings , a page that also lets you opt out of certain types of ads. You can also use the EFF's Panopticlick tool to see the information used to create your digital footprint.
But let's look at a Google search URL
I searched for “google url.” The search term is referenced in the link above, along with the following information (additional company encodings included):
UTF-8: the font encoding I use
Client=Firefox my browser
gfe – Google Front-End
rd – Redirect
cr – Country
ei – Engine ID
gws – Google Web Server
The other characters are parameters and cookies sent via the browser.
So together gfe_rd=cr means Google front and redirect country, while ei is the engine id followed by a random number-font that refers to the cookie. The “?gws_rd=ssl”, which we sometimes see in search URLs, means that the Google web server is redirecting to SSL.
YouTube
YouTube also collects information. The world's most popular video website tracks your video viewing history, your subscriptions, and your searches to help Google better understand you. All of this history can be viewed on your Google Dashboard – by you or anyone else who has access to your account.
It should be noted that there is nothing about your online activity that remains unknown to Google. None of the browsers protect you completely. Only more advanced measures, such as using a VPN and the Tor network, can protect your privacy.
Google+
The emergence of Facebook revealed that there was a much easier way to collect data. Thus came Google+. The user profile that Google used to create piece by piece, now you create it yourself! Of course, it can still be used for better ad targeting.
Your date of birth, your interests, your location, the contacts you make, the messages you post and the photos you upload are recorded.
Gmail
You probably won't be surprised to learn that your Gmail account is connected to Google's data collection. The company collects a wealth of information that it wouldn't otherwise have. Google scans your inbox for metadata that might indicate your preferences. The company can also compare the information it has from your email with other information it has about you. to better understand you.
Google Drive
Whether Google reads your files in Google Drive is unclear. It's likely that the same terms of service apply, given the company's unified privacy policy. The techniques used to collect information are unlikely to be much different from those used to collect information from Gmail. However, as of this writing, Google has not confirmed or denied that it collects data from Drive.
However, the company’s terms of service give Google the right to “use, host, store, reproduce, modify, or create derivative works” of anything in Drive. In short, Google can’t steal your content outright, since it explicitly states that it owns it — but it can read your data if it chooses to.
Android
Your online footprints can be traced no matter what device you use. PC, tablet, smartphone – it doesn’t matter, especially if you have a Google account. If you’re using an Android device now, you should definitely have an account with the company.
Android device owners obviously provide some very useful data that indicates not only where they live and their habits but also the locations they visit most frequently.
You can see the information Google has collected about you with the Location History tool. You can even delete your history, if any, although it's unclear whether the company allows you to permanently delete it from its internal database.
Useful information stored by Android isn't just your location. Consider that every device running Google's operating system collects wireless networks, passwords, and data from certain third-party apps. All of this is stored on Google's servers.
Complete profile from Google
Taken together, the information Google collects can create a complete profile. This profile includes everything: your emails, your Drive documents, your browsing history, the videos you watch on YouTube, your WiFi passwords, and more.
Google's interest, according to the company, is only in displaying ads. So from this point of view, an accurate profile can be considered good for you as you will only see the ads that interest you.
Do you trust that your data is only used to display ads?
