While Apple has always boasted about its privacy-focused business model, Google has been questioned time and again regarding its focus on user privacy and data handling practices. Although we have seen the Mountain View giant add various features and make changes to its products to improve user privacy, there are many users who are still skeptical of using Google’s offerings. So, to address such privacy concerns, Google has shared an in-depth QnA to answer some of the most asked privacy-related questions.
In an official report, Google answered a series of questions about user privacy, targeted ads, Google Assistant, location data, and much more. The report includes questions such as whether Google builds a personal profile of users to deliver ads or not, or does Google Assistant records everything users say or not?
Now, in most of the questions, Google, as the good guy that it is, the company stated that it does not collect or store any personal data of users such as location, payment credentials, or general information for its business purposes. The software giant claims that it only uses anonymous, aggregated data to improve its products and services.
As for targeted ads, Google says that it does leverage user data to deliver personalized ads. However, the company states that it does not use data relating to a user’s emails, documents, health, race, religion, or sexual orientation to target ads.
Moreover, the ads that you see, as per Google, are “based on a number of things, such as your previous searches, the sites you visit, ads clicked, and more.” Plus, you can always visit your Ad Settings page on Google to personalize the kinds of ads you want to see or disable ad personalization entirely.
Other than these, Google also clarified that it does not read or collect data from products that store your personal information such as Gmail, Drive, or Photos. And upon asking the question of how much does Google know about a user, the company directed us to the Google Dashboard, where you can see what Google services you use or what data is saved in your Google account, and other privacy-focused tools like Activity Controls and Ad Settings.
You can check out the full, in-depth QnA report on Google India’s official Newsroom.
