How to delete or turn off 'My Activity' in your Google account

There's a ton of hubbub lately about Google and other companies (cough Facebook cough) storing your user data and potentially selling it for a profit (they don't all do that). It's true; Google does indeed log a lot of your user data, but you do have some control of what gets stored in the "My Activity" section of your Google account.

Here's how to delete or turn off some of those activities.

How to delete usage data in your Google account

In the main section of the My Activity section of your Google account, you'll be able to view and delete your Android usage data, Voice & Audio data, Google Assistant data (searches, smart home control, etc.), search data, and ads.

You can delete them one by one by simply clicking the three dots on the right of each entry and clicking Delete.

You can also batch delete by activity type or date like this:

  1. Visit the My Activity section of your Google account.
  2. Click the three vertical dots on upper right side of your screen.
  3. Click Delete activity by.
  4. Click Today to open the dropdown.
  5. Click All time to delete all of your activity ever.
  6. Click DELETE to simply delete all of your activity today. You can optionally set a date range. You can also choose to delete data based on keyword, Google product, or type of activity.
  7. Click Delete in the pop-up.

All of your Google usage data for most Google products will be deleted.

How to turn off Google activity tracking

If you don't want to delete your stored Google usage data, but you do want to pause certain tracking aspects, you can.

  1. Visit the My Activity section of your Google account.
  2. Click the menu button on the upper left of your browser window. It's the three horizontal lines.
  3. Click Activity controls.
  4. Click the switch next to each service for which you'd like to disable tracking.

Questions?

Let us know in the comments below.

Mick Symons

Mick is a staff writer who's as frugal as they come, so he always does extensive research (much to the exhaustion of his wife) before making a purchase. If it's not worth the price, Mick ain't buying.