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The All About Cookies editorial team strives to provide accurate, in-depth information and reviews to help you, our reader, make online privacy decisions with confidence. Here's what you can expect from us:
Your personal information is like financial currency, and everyone is after it. In fact, hundreds of data brokers aggregate our personal details from publicly shared records, social media, and more. We'll teach you all of our tips to use your privacy settings to your advantage, plus offer recommendations for the best online privacy tools.
Read on to learn what privacy settings you may want to change to limit accessibility and how you can do it.
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If you aren’t familiar with the privacy settings you can change in your Google account, you may be surprised to learn what gets saved. Fortunately, in most cases, you can control how much data you allow Google to track.
You can update your settings to stop tracking web searches and app activity, and you can delete your search history. You can also delete cookies in your Chrome web browser, which may fix formatting or page loading issues.
Another setting that you may forget to adjust is your location history. When this setting is left turned on, anywhere you travel with your device can get shared with Google.
If you want to change your Google privacy settings and delete any saved data, you can do so by following some simple steps.
Make sure your Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and other online data is locked down. Here's how to change your social media privacy settings.
If you’re suddenly thinking about all the searches you’ve made in the past few days, you may not want Google saving the information. Our internet use should be as safe and private as our homes.
Maybe you don't want Google saving your YouTube history. Would you be okay with your voice activity and location getting saved by Google? How about personalized ads from your recent web browsing? If none of these sound like pieces of data you want to share, you can make some updates to delete that data.
You can use the Google Activity Controls and the Google Data & Privacy center for these updates.
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Double-check all your settings As a recommendation, you may want to turn off all tracking settings and pause all privacy options for optimal security. If you don't want your data tracked, going through all these settings is the best way to prevent it.
When you want to adjust your activity data settings, you can make changes at any time by going to the Google Activity Controls or Data & Privacy settings. Here, you can set your data up to auto-delete if you don’t want to worry about checking your history often or just want to simplify the process.
You can see what activity data Google saves and what you want to turn off with a few simple steps.
When you want to set your Google activity to auto-delete, you can go the Data & privacy section of your Google Account:
Under the History settings, click on Web & App Activity, Location History, and YouTube History, then click Auto-delete. Click Next, then Confirm.
If you use an Android device, you should find the same Google privacy options above. Depending on the make and model of your device, you may have additional privacy settings and permissions to configure.
For example, with a Samsung Galaxy S10, you can update the following privacy settings:
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Other privacy and security settings on your Android device may include ad settings, browsing history, Google search, and Google location history.
If you use Microsoft products, you can update your privacy settings to turn off data collection.
You may want to adjust your speech recognition data tracking as well. Microsoft’s speech features listen to your voice input to collect voice data, which includes details about your voice. And when the Windows Voice activation setting is on, your device listens for certain keywords. If the device hears the keyword, it will continue to listen for your voice.
You can also update your app activity regarding which applications launch and how often they are accessed. The software you use can get tracked, and some users would prefer that, for their privacy, Microsoft not have that data.
Changing your Microsoft privacy settings is a breeze if you know the correct steps to follow.
Learn how to remove cookies, clear cache, and delete browsing history in the Microsoft Edge browser.
Microsoft saves your data and uses it to give you a more personalized experience. It also uses your data for marketing purposes and to show you ads for things you might like based on your saved history. If you’re not interested in that experience, you can update your preferences to change what data Microsoft saves.
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You can alter the information you share with Microsoft in Windows 11 just like you can with Windows 10. The steps are very similar, and you will be able to update your privacy settings as you wish.
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You can access your privacy settings and change multiple Microsoft apps and devices by signing into your Microsoft account. Simply use the link to the Microsoft account privacy controls page to make changes.
Apple collects your personal information depending on how you interact with its products. That could be connecting to their services like the App Store or contacting customer support for help with your device.
Your personal information and payment selection are data that can be tracked and saved. Sometimes, even your social media interactions may get tracked.
Sometimes, Apple will ask you to share information from your devices for analytics purposes.
That data includes your operating system, performance, and hardware specs. Although none of the data collected identifies you personally, if you don’t want to share that information, you can turn it off on your Apple device.
If you decide that you don’t want Apple tracking your ad history, you can disable this setting on your iPhone or Macbook with a few easy steps.
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If you have an iPhone, you may have used Siri to make life a little simpler by voicing commands or asking Siri for instructions to a destination.
Many people enjoy the convenience of using Siri’s functionality, but some people don’t want Siri turned on because they don’t find it useful.
When you ask Siri a question, you may not get an answer, or you might get an answer about how Siri found an article on the web for you. And if you use Siri for voice-activated texting, you still need to check for typos because it can end up making no sense at all.
If you would like to disable Siri, it only takes a few steps.
If you’ve used Siri and want to delete the history, you can access it from the same Settings menu option.
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If you’ve adjusted all of your privacy settings and want some additional ways to protect your information online, you can use ad blockers, VPNs, or data removal services to protect yourself. Some cybersecurity suites, like Surfshark One and Aura, include all three services and more.
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Can also browse ad-free without a digital footprint with the Surfshark Search engine
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You can stop Google from sharing your searches by going to myactivity.google.com and turning off Web & App Activity.
You should turn off the following Microsoft privacy settings if you want to keep your personal information and searches private:
Also, disable the Speech and Inking & typing personalization settings.
The Communicate with unpaired devices (or Synced devices) setting in the Other devices tab should also be turned off, as it leaves a potential entry point for hackers who are within wireless range of the device.
Additionally, since a VPN encrypts data, security-minded users purchase a subscription to one for an extra layer of privacy.
If you would rather Apple not track your data, you want to turn off:
When you reset your phone or computer, your privacy settings may go to their original default settings, and you want to be sure you set them back to your preferences. Most devices come with multiple privacy options, but customizing them gives you the ability to choose how and if your data gets shared.
If you’ve made all the privacy setting changes we’ve gone over and still feel you want a little more data security, you can use tools like VPNs and ad blockers. To remove your personal data from the internet and improve your online privacy, consider one of the best data removal services.
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