What Google Knows About You

Do you often wonder what Google knows about you? I mean, how much are they tracking, do they know whether or not you visit certain websites, when you visited them, how long you visited them? If you add in Android and you have a smart phone that uses Google Android, do you know how much data they are collecting about you?

Well, take a look at My Activity in Google, and you’d be surprised at just how much data that they’re collecting. For example, in my timeline, they know that I visited the website SEMrush.com 20 times yesterday. This website is not associated whatsoever with Google, and it doesn’t require that you log in with a Google account. Yet Google knows that I visited the website 20 times yesterday while doing an SEO audit for a client. I go directly to SEMrush.com, I don’t actually search or SEMrush at Google and then click on the link to visit the site.

Take a look at some more from my timeline. They know that I renewed domain names at GoDaddy. I went directly to GoDaddy’s website. They know that I visited Reddit. I went directly to the Reddit website.

So, you have to start thinking about everything you do online–does Google know which websites you’re visiting on a regular basis, what you’re doing? Absolutely. They’re building a profile of you, and they know. Do they know that I’m an SEO? Absolutely. Do they know that you’re building links to your client websites? Absolutely.

What else do they know?