Google Account Privacy Checklist™

Google turned tracking back on in June 2026, and didn’t make a fuss about it.

If you had activity history switched on, Google flipped on a new setting called Save Media without asking. It saves the images and audio from your Lens and voice searches straight to your account. Photograph a restaurant menu and you might be saving the face of the person across from you, a prescription label, or the card in your hand. Almost nobody knows it’s on, because it was set up to be on by default.

That’s the kind of thing this checklist is for. It covers the 20 Google account privacy settings that actually matter, the ones buried three menus deep or renamed so you can’t find them anymore, with the exact path to each.

The six things you’re switching off

Activity & History. Google logs every search, every place, every video. You’ll switch off the new Search Services History controls, kill the Save Media setting, and wipe the years of history already sitting on your account.

Personalization & Ads. There’s an advertising profile built from everything you do, and a second switch for ads on non-Google sites that almost everyone misses. Both go off.

Location. Timeline is a map of everywhere you’ve been, every route, every stop. Switch it off and review who you’re still sharing live location with from some trip you forgot about.

Gemini AI. This is the new one. Gemini remembers your past chats by default and uses them to build a picture of who you are. It’s been on since late 2025. You’ll turn it off.

Connected Apps. Every “Sign in with Google” handed some app a key to your account, and plenty of them never gave it back. You’ll find them and pull access.

Security. A privacy checklist is pointless if someone else can walk into the account. You’ll run the Security Checkup, boot any device you don’t recognise, and make sure 2-Step Verification is actually on.

It’s a tool, not a PDF you’ll never read

You work through it one setting at a time. Each one tells you why it’s worth doing and exactly where to find it, then you tick it off and your score climbs to 20. It all lives in your Google Account, so it works the same on a laptop, an iPhone, or an Android. Most people finish in about 20 minutes.

Or skip it and have it done

If you’d rather not dig through Google’s menus yourself, our Online Privacy Protection service does the lot, remotely, in one sitting: tracking off, history cleared, AI memory killed, account locked down. Start free below, or book it if you want it handled for you.