How to Prevent Google Chrome From Tracking Your Online Activities

As a Google user, you must be familiar with Google’s location history, which contains information about your actual location. We often accidentally activate the moving feature using Google Maps. So don’t be surprised if Google can easily find out where you are.

In its statement, Google claims that this information helps them provide better service to users by knowing where they are and have been.

But in reality, not everyone wants to be tracked. For this purpose, they provide the option of disabling Google’s location history, which will track Google tracking of your locations. Google claims that ‘Location History’ is there by default and can only be turned on with the user’s permission.

But a question remains. Can you stop Google from tracking by turning off locations?

Turning these settings off seems to solve the problem, but some Google applications still store user location data, as stated by CNET.

Follow these simple steps to do it:

How to Turn Off Google Tracking

1. Access Google on your device, and then sign in to your account.
2. Select the icon in the top right corner and select the option to “Manage your Google Account.”
3. Click “Privacy & personalization.”
4. Select “Things you’ve done and places you’ve been”
5. Pick “Location history”, and then navigate to the “Activity Controls.”
6. Still under the “Location History”, you may select the button to the right that says “Turn off”, which will open a new window.
7. Now, scroll to the bottom part of the new window and select the “Pause” option.

This act will only remove the places you’ve visited before within the “Google Maps Timeline” feature by turning the location history off. However, there’s one thing you need to know.

According to Google, the data makes features more personalized and valuable. The company claims the data is never shared with third parties or advertisers.

However, regarding user tracking, it depends on the user. Do they agree or reject it. When you turn off tracking, you’ll see less relevant ads, less practical search recommendations, and a less personalized experience when using the search engine and its apps and services.

Meanwhile, for those who like personalized advertising, disabling tracking will prevent Google from predicting what you might care about. However, for those who prioritize privacy above all else, turning this setting off might be worth the loss of its specificity.

But, it can make you protected from privacy risks. If you want something better, you can also install chrome VPN extension with advanced privacy controls. It’s an easy-to-use and practical service to make your personal data safe and protected. Everything about your IP will remain hidden, and you can surf the web more safely.

Delete Old Location History

Disabling the tracking feature will indeed prevent Google from saving new information about your location. But, you need to know that it won’t delete any data that’s been previously collected. Here’s how to delete that information:

1. Open Google on your device, and login into your account as you usually do.
2. Select the user icon in the top right corner and select “Manage your Google Account.”
3. Click “Privacy & personalization”
4. Select “Things you’ve done and places you’ve been”
5. Navigate to “Location History” in the history settings box. Then open “Activity Controls.”
6. Select the “Manage history” option you can find near the bottom of the page, which will open a map with a timeline in the top left corner. 
7. The map will then show where you are, and the timeline shows where you are and at what time.
8. To delete your location on a specific date, click the date in the timeline. The date will then be displayed below the timeline. 
9. Click the trash can icon to the right of the date. In the pop-up window, click “Delete day”.
10. To delete all the histories at once, click the trash can icon you can find on the bottom right. Then, select “I understand and want to delete all Location History” on the new window. Click “Delete location history”.

Stop Google from Collecting Web and App Activity

When you create a new Google account, Google minimizes the amount of data it collects by only storing web and app activity for 18 months by default.

Here are some steps on how to stop Google from collecting your web and app activity in the future:

1. Open Google on your device, and login into your account as you usually do.
2. Select the user icon in the top right corner and select “Manage your Google Account.”
3. Select “Privacy & personalization.”
4. Pick “Things you’ve done and places you’ve been”
5. Navigate to “Web & App Activity” in the history settings box. This opens “Activity Controls.”
6. Click “Turn off” under “Web & App Activity”. In the pop-up window, click “Pause”. Click “Got it.”