How to find out everything Google knows about you and download it all in one big file

Have you ever wondered what Google knows about you? Google knows a whole lot about you. Before you freak out, Google is also very transparent about it. In the wake of Facebook data scandal, everyone is looking for ways to limit what the tech giants know about them. There are many ways to find out what Google knows about you and the data it collects. It ranges from apps you use to your entire YouTube video view history. Unlike Facebook, Google is very transparent about the data it collect. Google neither hide nor shy away from the data it collects. You can find all the data elements the company collects on its privacy page.

On its privacy page, Google provides a detailed list of data it collects. “We collect information to provide better services to all of our users – from figuring out basic stuff like which language you speak, to more complex things like which ads you’ll find most useful, the people who matter most to you online, or which YouTube videos you might like. We collect information in the following ways:

Information you give us. For example, many of our services require you to sign up for a Google Account. When you do, we’ll ask for personal information, like your name, email address, telephone number or credit card to store with your account. If you want to take full advantage of the sharing features we offer, we might also ask you to create a publicly visible Google Profile, which may include your name and photo.

Information we get from your use of our services. We collect information about the services that you use and how you use them, like when you watch a video on YouTube, visit a website that uses our advertising services, or view and interact with our ads and content,” Google said

Below are some of the things Google knows about you.

• Your personal profile: name, gender and birth date, personal cellphone numbers
• Your Google searches
• A complete map of where you’ve been at what date and time since you started using Google on your phone.
• What apps you use
• Your advertising profile.
• Your entire online and search activity across all your devices.
• Your entire YouTube history.
• Things you do
• Things you create
• Things that make you “you”

The good thing is that you can download everything Google knows about you as one big file.  According to Google’s own privacy information page, below is a list of specific information Google collects about you.

Here is an example of what Google knows about your buying habit and ads personalization. You can see the page by going to https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated.

How to download everything Google knows about you as one big file

So, how do you download everything Google knows about you in one scoop? It is actually very easy. All you have to do is to go to Google “Download your data” page or click here: https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout. Below is an example of what the download page looks like.