How to Stop Google Tracking You

The Problem

Google tracks your searches, location history, YouTube watches, voice recordings, app usage, and browsing activity. All of this feeds into an advertising profile that follows you everywhere.

The good news: you can turn most of it off. The bad news: Google makes it deliberately confusing. This guide walks through every setting that matters.

Step 1: Check What Google Already Has on You

Go to myactivity.google.com. This is everything Google has recorded. Searches, voice commands, places you've been, videos you've watched. Scroll through it. Take a moment to review what's there.

Now go to adssettings.google.com. This is the advertising profile Google built from all that data. Your age, interests, income bracket, relationship status. Some of it is surprisingly detailed. Some of it is hilariously wrong. This profile data is used for targeted advertising.

Step 2: Nuke Your Activity Controls

Go to myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols and turn off:

• Web & App Activity: This is the big one. It tracks everything you do across Google services and any site using Google ads or analytics (which is most of the internet). Turn it off. Also uncheck "Include Chrome history and activity from sites, apps, and devices that use Google services."
• Location History: Tracks everywhere your phone goes. Turn it off. Note: Google still collects "approximate location" from your IP even with this off, but it stops the detailed GPS timeline.
• YouTube History: Every video you watch and search for. Turn it off if you want. This will make your recommendations worse, which is arguably a feature.
• Ad Personalization: Turn it off. Your ads will become generic instead of eerily specific. This is a win.

After turning these off, click "Delete activity" on each one and choose "All time."

Step 3: Fix Chrome (or Better Yet, Ditch It)

Chrome is a Google product. It's fast, but it sends a significant amount of data back to Google by default. If you insist on using it:

1. Go to Settings > Privacy and Security
2. Turn off "Help improve Chrome's features and performance" (sends usage data to Google)
3. Turn off "Make searches and browsing better" (sends URLs to Google)
4. Set third-party cookies to "Block third-party cookies"
5. Turn off "Improve search suggestions" (sends everything you type in the address bar to Google in real time)

Better option: Switch to Firefox or Brave. Both are Chromium-compatible (your extensions still work on Brave) and don't phone home to Google. Check our browser comparison for a detailed breakdown.

Step 4: Lock Down Android

If you're on Android, Google is baked into the OS. You can't fully escape it without switching to a custom ROM (which most people won't do), but you can limit the damage:

1. Settings > Privacy > Permission Manager: Review which apps have access to your location, camera, mic, contacts. Revoke anything that doesn't need it. That flashlight app does not need your contacts.
2. Settings > Privacy > Ads: Delete your advertising ID and opt out of ad personalisation.
3. Settings > Location: Turn off location for any app that doesn't need it. Set the rest to "Only while using the app" instead of "Always."
4. Settings > Google > Manage your Google Account: This takes you to the same activity controls from Step 2. Make sure they're off here too.
5. Google Play Store > Settings: Review data sharing and personalisation options and opt out where available.

Step 5: Handle Google Maps

Google Maps is hard to replace because no alternative matches it for coverage and accuracy. But you can use it without feeding Google your entire travel history.

1. Open Maps > tap your profile picture > Your Timeline > review and manage your location data. Google renamed Location History to Timeline and moved it to on-device storage in 2024.
2. Use Maps without signing in (you can still search and navigate)
3. For walking directions and simple lookups, try OpenStreetMap-based alternatives like OsmAnd or Organic Maps

Step 6: Search Without Google

This is the easiest switch with the biggest impact. Your search history is one of the most revealing datasets about you.

Alternatives that actually work:

• DuckDuckGo: Doesn't track searches, good enough for 90% of queries. Add !g to any search to fall back to Google when you need it.
• Startpage: Uses Google's results but strips out the tracking. Best of both worlds.
• Brave Search: Fully independent index, no Google dependency.

Set your default search engine in your browser settings. You'll forget you switched within a week.

Step 7: Limit YouTube Tracking

If you still use YouTube (and let's be honest, you do):

1. Watch in a private/incognito window when you don't want something in your history
2. Use FreeTube on desktop for a privacy-respecting YouTube client
3. On mobile, NewPipe (Android) lets you watch without a Google account
4. If you must use the official app: Settings > History & privacy > Pause watch history and Pause search history

The Nuclear Option

If you want to go all the way:

1. Download all your data from takeout.google.com
2. Switch to a privacy-respecting email provider (see our email comparison)
3. Move your files from Google Drive to a local or encrypted cloud solution
4. Delete your Google account entirely

This is extreme and most people won't do it. But everything from Step 1 through Step 6 takes about 15 minutes and dramatically reduces what Google knows about you going forward.

What This Won't Fix

Even with all of this done, some things are still out of your hands:

• If you use Gmail, Google scans your emails for spam filtering and, unless you opt out, for smart features like Smart Reply and AI assistance. Google stopped scanning emails for ad personalisation in 2017.
• Websites using Google Analytics and Google Ads still report your visits back to Google, even if you opted out of personalisation. Use an ad blocker like uBlock Origin to stop this.
• Google can still link your activity through your IP address even without cookies. A VPN helps here. Check our VPN comparison if you're shopping for one.

Privacy isn't all-or-nothing. Every setting you change is one less data point in their profile.