![]() Advertising: The bulk of Google’s revenue comes from companies that pay Google to display their ads.For instance, Google Search can suggest search results that are nearby you if it knows where you are, and YouTube can recommend videos based on what you’ve watched previously. Personalization: When a service knows what you’ve searched for and how you’ve used it in the past, it can adjust its behavior to improve future usage.In addition to offering a lot of services, there are two more reasons why Google collects so much information about its users: personalization and advertising: It’s hard to avoid Google, even if you wanted to, which most people don’t. Google Search is by far the most popular search engine, only recently has Apple Maps competed head-to-head with Google Maps, YouTube is the main source of video on the Internet, and so on. ![]() That sounds like a lot, and it is! One reason there’s so much is because Google is such a dominant provider of services on the Internet today. Activity can be saved even when you’re offline or signed out. What’s less obvious is that Web & App Activity can even include information from sites and apps that partner with Google to show ads or that use Google services. It also stores usage and diagnostic information from Android smartphones. If you use Google Chrome as your browser, it includes your browsing history. It includes your searches and activity in Google Search, Google Maps, Google Assistant, Google News, Google Photos, YouTube, and more. Simply put, Web & App Activity is a record of almost everything you do on Google sites, apps, and services. ![]() Their next questions were often, “Wait, what is Web & App Activity, and do I want it enabled?” Here are some answers. Those with a healthy dose of caution were concerned that it might be a phishing attack, but no, it’s legitimate. And then twice for my main email but with different capitalization.Earlier this year, some of our clients received an email from Google reminding them that they have Web & App Activity turned on. And I hate scammers for making me waste energy on worrying about such things.Įdit: To be clear, I received the email 4 times for 3 accounts. But still slightly suspicious because they sent emails for the same account with different capitalization. So I'm less suspicious now since they accurately identified which accounts have it on. Then I went to a Gmail account I use frequently that I DID NOT receive this email for, and web & activity was off. Sure enough, for the account I received the email for, it was turned on. Why would they do that if it's actually from Google?Īnyway, without clicking within the suspicious email, I went myself to my settings in upper right corner of my email account (google apps>privacy & personalization>web & app activity). ![]() For example, vs And Gmail accounts aren't case sensitive so that's suspicious to me. The weirdest part is I got the email twice for the same email address BUT with alternate capitalization. I got the email for two accounts I forgot about and haven't used in years so would have to reset password to gain access and look at them. Weirdly I did not get it for every email account I have (and I don't remember ever messing with this setting either way in any of them.) Also got nervous about this which is why I searched and found this post. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |