Things you may not know that Google knows about you

[jymbee]

Google Data Insights (many of these are data points Google collects from it's services, but even if you never use any Google apps, they have other ways of collecting your data)

1. Your precise movement patterns​

If you’ve had location tracking on (even briefly), Google Maps can store a full timeline of where you’ve been, including:

• Exact routes you take regularly
• How long you stay at places
• Places you didn’t explicitly search for (just passed through)
  This can reveal habits like where you work, who you visit, and your routines.

2. Things you almost did (but didn’t)

Through Google Chrome and search tracking:

• Searches you typed but didn’t submit
• Pages you hovered on but didn’t click
• Ads you paused on briefly

That hesitation data is valuable—it shows intent, not just actions.

3. Your interests before you’re aware of them​

Using YouTube and search behavior:

• It clusters your behavior to predict emerging interests
• It may categorize you into interest groups you’d never consciously identify with

This is how recommendations can feel “creepy accurate.”

4. Your daily routines​

By combining data across services:

• Wake-up times (first phone activity)
• Commute patterns
• Sleep habits (based on inactivity + phone usage)

Even without a fitness app, patterns emerge.

5. Your voice and speech patterns

If you’ve used Google Assistant:

• Voice recordings may be stored (if settings allow)
• Accent, tone, and speech cadence can be analyzed
• It may improve recognition specifically for you

6. Purchasing behavior—even outside Google

From Gmail scanning (receipts, confirmations):

• What you buy
• How often
• Price sensitivity
• Subscriptions you forgot about

Even if you didn’t use Google Pay.

7. Devices and environments you use​

Google can infer:

• Devices you own (phone, laptop, smart TV)
• Your home vs work network
• Even your general living situation (based on usage patterns)

8. Your social and professional circles

Not directly like a social network, but through:

• Email contacts (Gmail)
• Calendar invites
• Shared documents in Google Drive

It can map who you interact with most.

9. Your risk profile and preferences​

Based on behavior:

• Are you impulsive or cautious?
• Do you compare options or buy quickly?
• Are you likely to click ads?

This affects what you’re shown and how.

10. Inferred sensitive traits (even if you never said them)​

Even if you never explicitly share:

• Political leanings
• Financial status
• Major life events (moving, breakup, job change)

Patterns + correlations fill in gaps.

 

[Seilerbird]

So what? BFD They collect data only to target advertisments.

 

[jymbee]

So what? BFD They collect data only to target advertisments.

Were it only that simple.

With the understanding that none of this info originates from own knowledge, rather from what I came across from other sources on the net.

Bottom line being that the greatest actual risk comes from the possibility that some/all this info becomes available to other nefarious actors either via hacking or access to your devices in other ways whereby they can ascertain:

1. Have your home address and phone number
2. Know where your major bank and shopping accounts are
3. Have enough information to guess at "hint" questions for password retrieval.
4. Have enough information to convince customer service agents to give them access to your accounts.
5. Have enough information to productively "spear phish" you (online personally targeted manipulation campaign, usually to get login credentials or money).
6. Have enough information to personally social engineer you--also usually for valuable assets or direct access to them.
7. Have enough information to steal your identity and get credit cards/loans as you. (Downstream impact: ****ing up your credit for a long time.)
8. Have enough information to guess your passwords (only if your password strategy is too simple).
9. Gather enough dirt to extort you.

 

[LarsMac]

Well, they're not going to get rich, or discover any national secrets by following me around.

 

[Seilerbird]

Google handles millions of visitors per year. If they were really collecting all that they would need massive amounts of storage. Finding any information from that much info becomes impossible.

 

[Chef Duane]

What if you don't use Google for anything and always have location services turned off? Does that mean you are an internet ghost?

 

[Primerump]

Google handles millions of visitors per year. If they were really collecting all that they would need massive amounts of storage. Finding any information from that much info becomes impossible.

Google's estimated total storage capacity is roughly 17.3 exabytes
they have enough computing capacity to process over 20 petabytes a day
that equates to millions of people per day. so yes, they can and will use your data.. they can process everything you have ever done in a few hundred milliseconds.
when they have done with it, they sell it to others.

 

[Derby6]

Yep it is what it is. I’m kinda like LarsMac.
Sorry sealerbird we in a different technological world that you grew up in.

 

[Larry N.]

Have enough information to convince customer service agents to give them access to your accounts.

Just over a week ago we sudden;y lost service on our landline, and couldn't even access out account, except to pay the bill. Turns out that someone, somehow "ported" our landline phone number to a Verizon mobile phone. This happened shortly after Mastercard locked our card and its account (for an attempted cash transfer of $8000). Wow!

They got some info somewhere.

Supposedly Century Link is trying to retrieve our phone number for us, but for now we're stuck with a changed number.

And that's mild, compared to what I hear some have gone through.

 

[Seilerbird]

Yep it is what it is. I’m kinda like LarsMac.
Sorry sealerbird we in a different technological world that you grew up in.

I grew up coding BASIC in the 80s.

 

[RayIN]

I grew up coding BASIC in the 80s.

Ya, reams of punch-cards in metal file cases_. those were the old-days. Today your cell-phone can process more data, and faster, than the newest computers in the previous century.
I was a computer data analyst supervisor in the mid-70"s for about 2 yrs. in the Army.

 

[jymbee]

Google handles millions of visitors per year.

Not even close-- more like 5-6 billion users and trillions of searches.

If they were really collecting all that they would need massive amounts of storage. Finding any information from that much info becomes impossible.

Not nearly impossible, quite the contrary. With their specialized tools, many of which are AI based, there are countless ways Google can work with the data it collects to provide highly targeted information to companies eager to pay for it.

They didn't get to be one of the most valuable companies in the world (with a valuation of 4-5 Trillion dollars) without knowing what they're doin'.

 

[TheBar]

If you saw the movie Minority Report you should believe the author obviously saw Google coming. AI is building a much more detailed profile on you than just your purchasing habits. If you don't believe it you are showing your age.

It may never lead to your being arrested before you commit a crime. But AI may recommend you as a suspect for a crime. Possibly several times a day. And if you believe computers never make mistakes you are naive.

And you think law enforcement doesn't have your DNA? Your relatives that did DNA tests at 123&Me or Ancestry.com have built DNA examples that can point directly at you. Like triangulation of a cell phone signal.

 

[UTTransplant]

I grew up coding BASIC in the 80s.

I taught BASIC programming in the early 80s at a Community College. I also taught high level languages in a couple of different university Computer Science programs, and I taught Software Engineering in a graduate level Systems Engineering MS program. I have programmed in everything from numerous assembly languages to multiple high level languages. And you know what? My knowledge base is old. The difference is that I know it. The analysis tools that modern tech giants have are beyond what we imagined in our wildest dreams in the 80s and 90s. Get with the program.

 

[Chef Duane]

...started with a Jacquard Loom, then Babbage's Analytical Engine. Hollerith Cards were my undoing.

 

[OldWEB]

Seilerbird at his computer trying to stop Google from tracking him...

 

[Seilerbird]

View attachment 2448706

Seilerbird at his computer trying to stop Google from tracking him...

No chance. I am a confirmed Googleaholic. I use almost all their products.

 

[rjshiflet]

Must be the most boring job in the world if they're scouring the comings and goings of millions of normal people that the most exciting part of their day is waking up in an RV and cooking breakfast outside...or even stopping into WalMart to buy "toilet pods".

But who knows, they may know that I ordered water heater elements from Amazon last month and I guess it's possible that could set off an international investigation. Or what about buying TWO windshield wiper blade replacements last week.

Follow me - track me - get to know me. Hey...we could be friends.

 

[John From Detroit]

Political leanings

Well that easy enough to figure out ... I make monthly donations to the party of my choice.

Oh here is a way to save money.. Make say a 20 dollar (annual is enough) donation to a political party's fund raising outfit and you will get tons of fireplace/paper burning furnace fodder to heat with delivered by the US Postal service.

Note: don't much matter which party.

 

[Chef Duane]

No chance. I am a confirmed Googleaholic. I use almost all their products.

Yeah.. no matter how much you try to reduce your digital footprint you are being tracked pretty much all the time. People should get over it. Same thing with video when in public. I always chuckle when I see these folks who get outraged at some guy videotaping. Don't they understand that they are video'd pretty much WHEREVER they go? Just go about your business and don't bother anyone.

"YOU DON'T HAVE PERMISSION TO VIDEO ME!!!"