Google alone knows what data about you is stored on the Internet and how to view it
A Reddit user under the nickname AlleKeskitason created a thread in which he asked which of the redditors used the Google data archive download function. This archive stores all information about the account owner, starting from contacts in the phone book, ending with voice recordings and location history.
In general, as you may have guessed, thanks to such an archive, you can learn a lot of interesting things about yourself. And here's what the redditors who used this function managed to find out.
If you use Google Photos and allow Google Maps to track you:
I took some photos that I didn't like and deleted them. A few weeks ago, I was flipping through my timeline on Google Maps and found the same deleted photos tied to the location there. Nothing out of the ordinary, but it is useful to understand that deleting does not always mean deleting.
I just found a bunch of recordings of how I communicated with the speech-to-text application on my phone when I was driving four years ago. I speak them like an idiot-I pronounce each word slowly so that they can be clearly heard.
"I'M. GOING. FOR. BACON. SEE YOU. LATER."
I was most impressed by the voice recordings. This should be disabled by default, not so that everyone should do it themselves.
It's easy to do: Log in to your account, follow the link https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols/audio and stop the voice control history.
Okay, I have a strange question.
My husband died last year. I still have his Samsung S7. I'm also 99% sure that his Google account is there, but I'm not sure if the password is saved in the phone.
If this thing is really recording voices, how can I get these recordings? I just want to hear his voice again. I have tears coming to my eyes as I write this... I only have one voice message from him on my phone and a couple of videos. Any recording of his voice or photo that I couldn't recover… I want everything I can get. I fucking miss him so much.
The answer after the redditors helped the woman get her husband's data:
Omg, thank you all very much… I'm in tears right now. I got access to the recordings without any problems, and although these are short excerpts, one of the last ones was "Ashton is my wife" and "I love you, baby".
You have no idea how much this means to me. There are his stupid search queries that he wrote when we were arguing (for example, about the names of songs), and thanks to them I went back to those times and laughed. I miss him so much… But at least now I have small fragments of memory about him.
This is very important to me. I am insanely glad that I came across this thread.
The most frightening fact I found when using Facebook, not Google. Short background: I'm straight, but I have a lot of LGBT friends and I actively supported the campaign for the legalization of same-sex marriage in Australia, so Facebook probably marked me as gay, somewhere in early 2012.
In the same year, I started dating a girl. We were friends for a long time. I hang out on Facebook all the time, she also had an account, but she didn't really use it.
In fact, we have never corresponded on Facebook.
All of a sudden, I lost all the ads with "single men" , etc. and there was an ad for "romantic vacation for couples", and Facebook suggested that I add that girl as a "close friend".
I can only assume that they found out from the GPS location data that we spent the night together at my place, and then another one at hers.
The audio recordings are named quite formally, so I advise you to take precautions before listening next to your partner, relative or friend. Don't make my mistakes…
"Hey, Google, how do I increase my penis size?"
* the girl looks at me in surprise*
Apparently, I walked thousands of kilometers in my sleep, and each time I managed to get home in order to get to work on time. And a bunch of records of how the fan works in my computer. But at least they recorded my fetishistic porn requests.
Oh, Google. Google on the hype. Incompetent Google. I know that my data is in safe hands.
UPD: I found a record of a fart.
It seems to me that I should worry more about my data in the hands of Google. Especially because of the recordings of conversations. But after I listened to them... like, these are 400 recordings of me saying "make coffee", "turn on X on Netflix" and "turn off the lights"…
Perhaps this is a more pressing problem for those who use the Google assistant more than to manage their home.
If you also want to view the Google archive, here's how to do it:
1. Go to https://takeout.google.com/
2. Choose which data you want to view.
3. Select the archive parameters and send a request.
4. You will receive your archive within some time (depending on the amount of information about you).
Keywords: World | Internet | Technologies | Google | Society | Profile | Data | Life hacks | Personal data | Social networks