Google account: the big clean-up
Your Google account knows where you went, what you searched and what you watched, sometimes for ten years. Here is what to turn off, what to erase, and in what order. Everything happens on myaccount.google.com.
- 01
Turn it off, then delete the existing history
The pathmyaccount.google.comDonnées et confidentialitéActivité sur le Web et les applications
Turning it off stops future collection; it erases nothing. The two actions are separate, and the second is the one people forget.
- 02
Turn off location history
The pathDonnées et confidentialitéHistorique des positions
Look at the map before deleting it, it is instructive: it retraces your movements day by day, often over years.
- 03
Set auto-delete to three months
The pathDonnées et confidentialitéHistorique YouTube
Rather than switching everything off, which breaks recommendations, keep a short window. The setting exists for all three histories.
- 04
Remove anything you do not recognise
The pathSécuritéVos connexions à des applications tierces
This is the list of services you told “sign in with Google”. A game installed in 2019 may still be reading your contacts.
- 05
Turn on two-factor by app, not by SMS
The pathSécuritéValidation en deux étapes
This is the account that resets all the others. If it falls, everything falls. Generate the backup codes right after.
- 06
Sign out devices you no longer have
The pathSécuritéVos appareils
The old phone you sold, the computer from your last job. As long as they are listed, their session is still valid.
You have been through all of them.
These settings do not need redoing every month, but they are worth checking after every major system update: that is when some of them quietly return to their original value.