Google Account
What the default settings do
A Google Account connects many services - Gmail, Search, YouTube, Maps, Drive, Gemini, and more. By default, Google collects and retains a wide range of activity data to personalize your experience across these services. This includes your search history, location history, YouTube watch history, voice recordings, and, increasingly, your conversations with Gemini. Google has also consolidated separate ad-personalization pages into a single “Ad Center” and added tools that let you find and request removal of your personal contact details from Search results.
Two changes in 2026 affect where these controls live. From mid-2026, Google began moving Search activity out of Web & App Activity into a new Search Services History setting, with separate switches for saved media (such as Lens photos and voice recordings) and personalized recommendations. And from September 2026, Google began replacing Google Assistant with Gemini on Android phones and tablets, so voice requests on most phones now fall under your Gemini settings rather than Assistant’s.
A reasonable privacy baseline
These settings are mostly managed at myaccount.google.com under Data & privacy, though a few (Search Services History, Timeline, and Gemini) live in their own apps or activity pages.
Activity controls
myactivity.google.com/search-services/settings → Search Services History → Off or On with auto-delete set to 3 months
This newer setting controls whether Google saves your activity in Search services (Search, Maps, Shopping, Flights, Hotels, Translate, News, and related services) to your account, including searches, information from sites you visit through Search, and AI-generated responses. When Google introduced it, it copied your existing Web & App Activity choice and auto-delete period, so if Web & App Activity was on, this started out on too. Google says this history is also used to develop and improve its services, including AI models.
Search Services History → Saved media → Off
A sub-setting that decides whether images, files, and audio or video recordings from your Search interactions are kept with your history. That includes Google Lens photos, files you upload, Search Live recordings, and voice searches. Photos you point Lens at often show the inside of your home or other people, so this is worth switching off even if you keep text history.
Personalized Recommendations (same page) → Off
Separate from whether history is saved at all, this controls whether Google uses your account information, Search Services History, and activity across Google to personalize recommendations in Search services. Turning it off keeps results more generic.
Web & App Activity → Off or On with auto-delete set to 3 months
Once the Search Services History change reaches your account, Web & App Activity no longer covers Search; Google says it continues to control activity and personalization for some other Google services. Until the change appears in your account, this setting still governs Search too. Google's default for this setting on new accounts is an 18-month auto-delete; choosing 3 months keeps far less history around.
Include Chrome history and activity from sites, apps, and devices that use Google services → Off
This sub-setting, nested under Web & App Activity, extends tracking beyond Google products to third-party sites and apps.
Include voice and audio activity → Off
Prevents Google from storing recordings of your voice from the services Web & App Activity still covers. Voice searches are now handled by Saved media above, and since Gemini replaced Google Assistant on most phones from September 2026, what you say to Gemini is governed by the Gemini Apps Activity controls below.
YouTube History → On with auto-delete set to 3 months
YouTube recommendations rely heavily on watch history. Keeping it on with a short retention window is a reasonable balance.
Location History (Timeline)
Google Maps app → your profile picture → Your Timeline → Location & privacy settings → Turn off
Google moved Timeline management out of myaccount.google.com and into the Maps app. Timeline data is now stored only on your device by default rather than in the cloud, so turning Timeline off stops the on-device log from being built. Google Maps still works for navigation either way.
Timeline → Backup → Off (if you keep Timeline on)
If you want Timeline's trip history without it leaving your device, turning off Backup keeps location history device-only instead of saving an encrypted copy to Google's servers. Backup is what lets Timeline survive a lost phone, so this is a genuine trade-off.
Gemini Apps Activity
myactivity.google.com/product/gemini → Keep Activity → Off
Controls whether your conversations with Gemini apps are saved to your account and can be sampled for human review to improve Google's services. Turning this off stops new conversations from being added to your activity and stops them being selected for review going forward.
Gemini Apps Activity auto-delete → 3 months (if you keep it on)
Google's default retention for Gemini activity is 18 months, with options for 3 or 36 months. A shorter window limits how much conversation history accumulates.
Turning Keep Activity off is a meaningful limit, but not a complete opt-out. Google still retains conversations for a short operational period (currently up to 72 hours) regardless, and any conversation already sampled for human review before you turned activity off is retained separately, on its own schedule.
gemini.google.com → Settings → Personal Intelligence → Connected Apps → Leave off, or connect only the apps you need
Personal Intelligence is an opt-in feature, off unless you turn it on, that lets Gemini draw on your Gmail, Google Photos, YouTube history, and Search activity to give more personal answers. You choose which apps to connect and can disconnect any of them at any time, or use a temporary chat that skips personalization. Google says it does not train its models directly on your emails or photos, but it does train on prompts and responses after filtering personal details. Availability varies by country; at the time of writing it had not launched in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the UK.
Ad personalization
myadcenter.google.com → Personalized ads → Off
Google has folded its older "Ad Settings" page into My Ad Center, covering ads across Search, YouTube, and partner sites in one place. Turning off personalized ads stops Google from using your account activity to target ads. You will still see ads, but not based on your behavior.
Shared endorsements ("Share recommendations in ads") → Off
Prevents your name and profile photo from appearing in ads shown to people you know, based on your reviews, follows, or Play Store activity.
Results about you
myactivity.google.com/results-about-you → Set up alerts and request removal
This newer tool scans Google Search results for your personal contact details (phone number, email, home address) and lets you request their removal, plus flag exposed government ID numbers. Worth reviewing periodically even if you change nothing else on this page.
Third-party app access
myaccount.google.com → Security → Third-party apps & services → Review and remove unused connections
Lists every app and service granted access to parts of your Google Account (Sign in with Google, Drive access, calendar sync). Removing an app stops future access, though data it already collected may remain on its own servers.
Data download
takeout.google.com → Export a copy of your data before deleting history
Google Takeout lets you download an archive of your data across services, a reasonable step before turning off activity tracking or clearing history if you want a personal record of what you are removing.
Trade-offs
- Turning off Search Services History or Web & App Activity makes Google Search and other services less personalized, and you cannot revisit earlier searches from your account. Turning off Personalized Recommendations has a similar effect while still letting you keep a history.
- Turning off Saved media means you cannot go back to earlier Lens photos or voice searches from your activity page.
- Turning off Timeline, or disabling its Backup, means you lose the convenience of a synced travel history across devices, and a lost or reset phone with Backup off means that history is gone for good.
- Turning off Gemini Apps Activity does not fully stop Google from processing your conversations. Short-term operational retention and human review of previously sampled chats still apply on their own timelines, and disabling activity is a different thing from opting out of your conversations being used to improve Google’s AI models.
- Leaving Personal Intelligence off, or connecting fewer apps, means Gemini cannot answer questions that depend on your email, photos, or viewing history, such as finding a booking confirmation.
- Turning off ad personalization does not reduce the number of ads. Ads may feel less relevant or occasionally less appropriate.
- Auto-delete at 3 months means some features still work well, but Google retains less long-term data about you.
- Requesting removal of exposed personal information through Results about you does not delete it from the original website, and Google can decline a request if it considers the information to be in the public interest.
- Removing a third-party app’s access can break sign-in for that app if you used “Sign in with Google” as its only login method, requiring you to set up a new way to log in.
Who should not change these settings
- If you rely on Google services for accessibility features (such as voice control or predictive text that improves with usage data), keeping activity controls on may be important for you.
- If you use Google Maps Timeline as a personal travel log across multiple devices, keep Backup on, since disabling it or turning Timeline off removes that record.
- If you rely on Gemini to find things in your Gmail or Photos and are comfortable with that access, connecting those apps through Personal Intelligence is a reasonable choice; connect only the ones you actually need.
- If you use Gemini for ongoing projects and want to return to earlier conversations, keep Keep Activity on; turning it off limits how much conversation history persists.
- If you prefer seeing relevant ads over generic ones, keeping ad personalization on is a valid choice.
- If your name and contact details need to stay publicly findable for professional reasons, the Results about you removal tool is not something you need to use.