How to find out what Google knows about you

Seeing how much information Google stores is both interesting and scary. YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Search, and Maps are just a few examples of all the Google services we use in our digital lives, day-in and day-out.

As users, it’s easy to lose control of the information we’ve given up that Google has access to.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to find out what Google knows about you — using the Google Dashboard service. Here you can see exactly what you’ve done in different Google services and what information is stored.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to www.google.com/dashboard.
2. Sign in with the Google account you are interested in.
3. Under the heading Recently used Google services you’ll see what you’ve done recently, but you can also scroll down to Other Google services.
4. As you can see, the information is sorted by service/app. Depending on which service it is, there are various options, such as Delete backed up data, Settings and Your data from XX.
5. At the top you will see the options Delete a service and Download your data. If you don’t want to keep one or more Google services, you can save your personal information and cancel the service.