What does Google really know about me?

We know what Google is, but they also know who you are. Before you even type into that search bar, Google has already collected a lot of data on you. Sounds crazy at first, but let's dive deeper into how they operate.

Google knows a lot about their users. They say it's for better results, but is that all they do? Why do they need to know I use Chrome? What's so important about my IP address? You didn't know that? Well, yea, they collect so much more than just those.

1. Your searches aren't yours

When you type a search, you expect to just get your results and probably forget about it in an hour. Google does the opposite: they not only store your data, but use it for geographical statistics, AI, and much more. In the past few months, their AI has grown a lot. Due to this, they've been using more user data — collecting your "search history," the sites you reach through their services, and even your "generative AI responses."¹

2. What exactly do they store?

No matter how much you think they store about a simple search, it's more.

• Search terms - Does Google really need to know about your personal issues?
• Location - They log your IP for every search, which can be used to find your geolocation.
• Cookies - Your cookies from your logged in account link your searches directly to you.

If you have a daily Google account, like most, they take a lot of personal information. They then link it with your search, and now a search term links to almost everything besides your driver's license and SSN.³

• Name - They really do know a lot.
• Payment - Your subscriptions are linked to a single search.
• Address - One look at your address tells them everything you searched. Ever.
• Email - More obvious, but if it's used for business, your livelihood is connected to a single word.
• Media - Photos, videos, or even funny GIFs. Google can find what your curiosity brought you just from a photo you took a decade ago.
• Comments - Pertains to YouTube, but commenting "I've made better" on a baker's video can be linked to you Googling "where to buy the best cookies".

While this is already way too much just for searches, it gets worse. Imagine you have no Google account, no links to Google, and search without an account. That doesn't protect you anymore. They still get your location, they can collect everything about your device, and they can cross-reference that with your history.

Crazily enough, the device data is the most identifying part of it all. It's the only one you can't just change. With the rest, you may think to just use incognito and a VPN. Guess what? It's still logged under your device. Every device has a thousand parts that make it different from another. What makes it unique is the exact GPU vendor, GPU renderer, the CPU vendor, the screen, the resolution, the RAM, the cores, and so much more.

Due to the variety that makes it very rare to find another machine 1:1 to yours, Google can identify you. They can give your specific machine a name, then tie every search to that name. Now, even with your IP address masked, history cleared, Google cookies gone, you're not safe from Google's endless tracking. Below are some specific identifiers on machines.

• Browser - This would be Chrome, Brave, Firefox, and of course it includes the version.
• GPU - The exact type, who makes it? What series? They know it.
• CPU - What brand? They know. How many cores? They know.
• Screen - Your pixel resolution, your screen height, width, and even the dimensions from the page specifically.
• Location - Yea, your machine gives away your location. It provides timezone, which can be changed from a VPN. What that can't change is the languages your machine uses. Those are a tell of what country you're in.
• RAM - They not only know how much memory your device has, but how much is used. Yes, they know how much memory your machine is using at that very moment. You can thank Chrome specifically for that one.

In the end, there is a very low chance that your device is the same as another. Those odds are about 1 in 286,777⁴, or ~0.00035%.

"You think you're searching Google. They're searching you."

3. Does Google keep a permanent record?

Possibly the only half-decent part

Would you trust someone with your address, name, phone number, email address, search history, password, and most of your digital identity? Would you trust them to keep it for over a year? About 18 months to be exact. If not, then you aren't familiar with Google's retention policy.

A year and a half. That's how long Google retains data from you. It's only location and activity data, so any personal information is still there. Even on that 18-month rule, it's conditional.

• Telemetry - This is all they delete. Basic tracking data and analytics AFTER it's been used.
• Account age - This deletion rule applies only to accounts created after June 24th, 2020⁵.
• Timeline - The data isn't truly gone until about 2 months after initiation. A total of 20 months or 1.67 years.
• AI - Hopefully you didn't forget. The biggest of all. Your search data gets dumped into AI training, matched up with everything else they've tied to you. And with billions of people's private searches, their AI still isn't impressive.

So what can you actually do about it?

By now it's clear there's almost no way around Google's tracking. The best you can do on your own is be careful, and not type anything sensitive into that search bar, because it's going to be tied back to you. On the flip side, you can switch to a product we built for this exact reason. You can perform searches while keeping yourself untethered to the search itself.

That's what Autognito does. You tell us the search, we encrypt it, we don't store it, and we return Google's real results while keeping your identity out of it. You get the answers you came for, with nothing that can connect them back to you. No profile built, no ad campaigns trailing you because of it. Autognito is a modern solution to a modern problem. In a world where every curiosity you have is tied to your identity, we can stop that from happening.