Google Account

Introduction

If you use the Web, it's important to realize that Google partners with many different websites and stores information about your interests and demographics, even if you don't have a Google account. All of this information is accessible from the Google Privacy Center, which contains many useful privacy tools.

In this lesson, we'll talk about Google's Privacy Policy and how to use privacy tools.

Understanding Google privacy

Google's Privacy Policy may seem complex, but it's actually much simpler than it used to be. In the past, every individual Google service came with its own separate policy. But in March 2012, Google consolidated its Privacy Policy to treat you as a single user across all of its services. Whether you're using Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, or any other Google product, Google applies the same Privacy Policy. This also means Google may share information about you among its services.

For example, if you perform a Google search for "dogs" Google might share that information with YouTube. Then, if you were to search YouTube for "pets", videos about dogs would appear higher in the search results. This may sound like a lot of personal information to share with one company, but it's important to remember that Google only uses this information to improve your search results and other Google services.

 Watch this video to learn more about Google's Privacy Policy:

The Google privacy center

Google understands that its Privacy Policy raises concerns among some of its users. To address these concerns, it created the Policies & Principles page, where you can go to read Google's Privacy Policy, watch videos relating to privacy, access privacy tools, and more.

To access the privacy center:

• Click Privacy and Terms at the bottom of any Google page, like Google.com or Gmail.com.

Clicking the Privacy link at the bottom of the Google Search page

Alternatives to Google

Google offers a comprehensive range of web services, but there are alternatives that offer similar services (we've listed some below). While comparable in many ways, these other sites cannot offer the convenience of a single Google account. Still, you may want to consider whether you feel comfortable sharing all of your information and online behavior with Google.

• DuckDuckGo: A search engine that doesn't track your search history
• Hushmail: An email service that encrypts your messages and displays no advertisements
• Vimeo: A popular video hosting site that allows for strong privacy controls

Google privacy tools

Although Google holds some of your personal information, it also gives you the power to control how much information it can collect. There are many different privacy tools to help you modify your privacy settings, including the Ads Preferences Manager, Web History Controls, and Google Dashboard.

To access Google privacy tools:

1. Go to http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/online-safety/security-tools/.
2. You'll see a list of privacy tools, such as the Ads Preferences Manager and Google Dashboard. You may want to spend some time reviewing what each tool does and why it might be helpful to you.
   Google privacy tools

Ads Preferences Manager

Many websites partner with Google to bring you more relevant ads. In order to do this, Google tries to guess your interests and demographics (such as age and gender) based on websites you visit. When you perform a Google search or view a webpage, Google will use this information to decide which ads to show you. This is meant to benefit both you and advertisers: You're more likely to see ads that interest you, and advertiser know their ads are more likely to pay off.

However, not everyone likes targeted ads. If you would like to opt out of targeted ads—or just see what information Google is using to deliver ads to you—you can go to the Ads Preferences Manager.

Your interests and demographics are not stored in your Google account but rather in a cookie on your computer. This means you'll get targeted ads even if you're not signed in to a Google account.

View the following video by Google for more information about how interest-based advertising works.

To manage your Ads Preferences:

1. From the privacy tools page, scroll down and select Ads Preferences Manager.
   Opening the Google Ads Preferences Manager
2. Your Google ad settings will appear. From here, you can remove specific information, like your age and gender, or opt out of interest-based ads.
   Opting out of interest based ads

If you clear your browser's cookies, you will need to go back to the Ads Preferences Manager and opt out again. You can also install the Keep My Opt-Outs plug-in for your browser, which will keep you opted out of Google ads permanently, even if you clear your cookies.

Web history controls

By default, Google keeps a history of the web searches you perform and the websites you visit while signed in to your account. It uses this data to provide better search results and recommendations. However, if you would prefer that Google not record this information, you can disable your web history.

To disable web history:

1. Locate and select Google Web History controls from privacy tools.
   Opening Web History controls
2. Your search history will appear. Click the Gear, then select Settings.
   Clicking Settings
3. Click Turn off to stop future searches from being recorded.
   Turning off Web History

Google Dashboard

The Google Dashboard brings information from the different Google products you use onto one page, making it easy to see what information Google is storing about you. It's organized by product, so you can see how many files you have on Google Drive, what posts you've shared on Google Plus, and more. You can also access additional privacy settings for some services like YouTube and Gmail.

Watch the following video from Google for an overview of the Google Dashboard.

To open the Dashboard:

1. Select Google Dashboard from the privacy tools.
   Opening the Google Dashboard
2. Your Google Dashboard will appear. Under each product name, you can view the information for that service. You can access the settings or privacy settings (if available) for the product on the right.
   The Google Dashboard