Personal Privacy & Security

Protecting yourself from data breaches, identity theft, and even physical threats to you and your loved ones has never been more important. While eliminating these risks entirely is impossible, this website provides practical steps to significantly reduce your chances of becoming the next victim. Follow the guidance in each category below to safeguard yourself and others.

Google Safeguards

Google Account

Purge Your Old Data
- Browse to myactivity.google.com. For the three categories shown — Web & App Activity, Location History and YouTube History — set auto-delete to delete activity older than three months.

Disable Personalized Ads
- Browse to myadcenter.google.com/controls and turn off personalized ads.

Remove Google's Access to Third-party Apps
- Browse to myaccount.google.com/accountlinking and unlink accounts that you don't want Google to have access to.

Limit What You Share
- Browse to myaccount.google.com/data-and-privacy and under the section "info you can share with others" check your profile and location sharing.

Android

Use the Privacy Dashboard
- You can find the dashboard by going to Settings > Privacy and then opening up Privacy Dashboard. Tapping on each app individually to see what apps are allowed to access your data and change the settings.

Check Microphone and Camera Access
- When an Android app is using your phone’s microphone or camera, a small green dot will appear in the top menu bar. Swiping down from the top corner of the screen opens the Quick Settings menu, where you can turn the app’s camera and microphone access off instantly. While that block is temporary, you can enter the individual app’s permissions from here and make the change permanent.

Delete Your Advertising ID
- To make the change, go to Settings > Privacy, scroll to Ads, and then tap on Delete advertising ID. It won’t mean you don’t see ads on your phone anymore, just that the ads won’t be based on your behavior and personal data.

Google Home

Configure Voice Match
- When you set up a Voice Match profile on Google Home, your smart speakers will listen for your voice and use it like a fingerprint to identify you. That way, only you can check your calendar, add to your shopping list or watch your YouTube playlist on Nest Hub smart displays. Other people can still use Google Home and can even set up voice profiles with their own Google accounts, but only you will have access to your information.
1. Open the Google Home app, then tap your personal icon in the upper-right corner, then tap Assistant settings.
2. On the horizontal menu bar, tap Assistant and then scroll down and tap Voice Match.
3. Tap Add a device. The Google Home app will scan your current Wi-Fi network for compatible devices. Once it does, tap Continue.
4. Under Activate Voice Match on this device tap the box labeled I agree, then scroll to the bottom of the next screen and tap the next box with I agree.
5. Follow prompts to teach Google to recognize your voice.