from Hacker News

How to find and delete data Google keeps about you

by rahuldottech on 2/14/20, 10:03 AM with 42 comments

  • by meowface on 2/14/20, 11:57 AM

    Funny that this is from CNET, notorious for bundling all of their download.com software with adware and spyware.

  • by hedora on 2/14/20, 3:35 PM

    Did you hear the joke about the guy that successfully opted out of Google tracking?

    He got run over by a Waymo.

    Seriously though, anyone who understands Google’s ad business (and ancillary businesses, like Waymo and Nest) knows they will never voluntarily provide a complete opt-out to data tracking.

    On the bright side, I used to bike commute near their self driving cars. They certainly have GB’s of 3D full body scans of me wearing spandex. I hope it gives their AI nightmares.

  • by Lendal on 2/14/20, 2:36 PM

    This article says that holding your location history is creepy but holding your search history is harmless and you should let them do it.

    I find the opposite is true. I have no use for my search history, but I like to see my timeline to help me remember. I have a bad memory. Looking up past events, trips I took, places I've been and the context of my old photos is important to me.

    So my question is, why does CNET want me to delete my timeline but not my search and app usage history? My location data is of no use to them, (but it is of use to me,) so location data is "creepy" but my search history is very important to keep? Huh? Why exactly? Why do I need to remember that 2 months ago I searched for "python ppa ubuntu"? Useless. Delete it please.

  • by mceachen on 2/14/20, 4:47 PM

    PSA: Before you delete your location history, please consider downloading it for personal use later, via Google Takeout. Several tools (that you host) may make that data useful/interesting to you (especially for trips/vacations/events).

  • by izacus on 2/14/20, 2:43 PM

    The article starts with this sentence:

    "Whether you have an iPhone ( $699 at Apple ) or Android phone, Google Maps logs everywhere you go, the route you take to get there, when you arrive and what time you leave -- even if you never open the app."

    Where iPhone link actually is an affilate link to Apple Store which (I assume) pays money to CNet for advertising it.

    Am I the only one that considers this a bit suspect? Especially in an article that's talking about Apple's competitor?

  • by curiousgal on 2/14/20, 11:46 AM

    All it probably does is switch a Deleted field to True.

  • by hairofadog on 2/14/20, 12:44 PM

    I’m curious about how they make use of their knowledge of multiple accounts. In Chrome and the Gmail app they definitely understand that these x accounts belong to the same person, and I imagine there’s some kind of Uber-profile on me.

    I keep waiting for the day I’m filling out one of their captchas and after a couple failed attempts it’ll say, “c’mon, (my actual name), you know what a traffic light looks like”.

  • by aszantu on 2/14/20, 11:39 AM

    So you click a few buttons and trust that they do what you want them to do. Google could just say they delete that data and still keep and sell it, there is no way of really knowing.

  • by hiram112 on 2/14/20, 3:11 PM

    It's pretty easy to go to the main privacy settings and turn off all tracking and also 'delete' whatever info they've accumulated. I tend to do that every month or to, as Google's dark patterns on my phone or some other site almost always turn them back on, especially location.

    Regardless, it seems like a pointless exercise. Besides the easier to find 'privacy' settings that Google makes available, you can actually request to download ALL the data Google has on you. Last time I tried, I filled out the form and the reply is that Google will need almost a week of time to gather the data, upon which they sent me a link to download a massive (several GB) log file.

    So let me get this straight. I supposedly deleted ALL my data in the privacy settings. Just five minutes later I can then download the GB of data they still have on me?

    I'm guessing the easier to find privacy settings don't do much at all except delete some advertiser ID that is used a primary key in their main caches, used with cookies and on Android.

    On the other hand, using more complex analytics, they could easily put together a profile of every single bit of data they've got on my for the last 10 years.

  • by einpoklum on 2/14/20, 2:23 PM

    > but you can wipe the slate clean with these steps.

    That subtitle is misinformation, and so is the underlying premise of much of that story, as:

    1. All of the data Google collects is passed on to the NSA (if not also elsewhere), which will obviously not delete it.

    2. The fact that the information stops appearing as part of your account does not mean it is properly deleted from Google's servers for their own internal use (and perhaps more 3rd party sharing).

    3. The results of _processing_ your collected personal data - even mildly - are not part of what you see on your profile, and you're not issuing a command to delete all that.

  • by chopin on 2/14/20, 3:08 PM

    I'd be interested to see what they know about me if I don't have an account.

  • by FrozenSynapse on 2/14/20, 1:41 PM

    But why?!