SO YOU’RE ALREADY aware that Google keeps a record of all your searches made, unless you’ve switched off search history, but what about those who like to activate Google Now every now and again?
While it’s a handy function for when you just can’t type on your phone (saying Ok Google activates it), what you might not be aware of is how it saves the audio and transcript of each search.
It should be noted that it only saves the search made, and not anything else said before or after it – when it starts and stops listening is clearly signaled.
Go into My Account and look for the Personal info and Privacy section. Here, scroll down all the way to the voice searches and commands section.
Click on Manage Activity and you will see a list of all the voice and audio searches you’ve made through Google’s services.
Some of the entries will have transcripts depending on what was said (if Google recognised your accent correctly), and some will include entries you likely forgot about. If you wish, you can disable it by going into settings and ‘Show more controls’ (the same can be done on the personal info and privacy page from earlier).
This isn’t the only thing you can look at here. At the top right-hand corner, you can check your activity and history for other services like YouTube, web and app activity and location history.
Most of these have been revamped so it’s easier to take a few minutes to check exactly what is saved. Google saves this information to help improve and personalise services for you, but there’s nothing wrong with disabling it.
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