3 Ways I STOP Google spying on my phone... Android Privacy Settings!

Do you ever feel like your Android phone is listening to you? You're chatting in the car about a something, and later that day, ads for it show up on your feeds. It's a little creepy. While our phones are constantly tracking our activity, they don't have to listen in on our conversations. There are three simple settings you can turn off right now to get your phone working for you, not against you. In this video, I'm sharing how I disable personalization, stop usage and diagnostics, and turn off those super creepy ads that are spying on you.

3 Ways I STOP Google spying on my phone... Android Privacy Settings!



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

We all know our Android phones are spying on us. You mention something in passing while chatting in the car, then that night there's a YouTube video or an advert that is exactly all about what you were talking about. It's what it does. Constantly tracking your activity, monitoring which apps you use and what you search for on the internet. But listening into conversations feels like a step too far. There are tracking features which are switched on by default on our Android phones. Plus, they're slowing them down and draining the battery. But there are three settings which we can turn off right now to stop our phone spying on us. Let's do this right now. This is my phone up on screen here. And I'm going to do this in real time as we do this so you can follow along with me. The first thing we're going to do is disable personalization. My phone shares my data with lots of apps, which feels like spying. All that activity is logged and recorded to send me advertising and recommendations that are targeted at my brain. My brain can't take it anymore. Plus, it's my data. Also, it's using my phone's resources, which slows it down and runs down the battery. So, let's shut this down. Go into your phone's settings, which is the cog icon, and look for Google on this long menu. We'll click on this, and there are two buttons on the top, recommended and all services. We need all services. It's almost like it wants to be hidden. Let's click on all services. There are different sections in this menu. Scroll down to this section, privacy and security. And we want this option, personalize using shared data. Click on that. That opens up this list of apps which have access to my data. I don't know why clock is on there. I can't look at that myself. But maps and Chrome are pretty much everything I do on my phone. And device contacts down here is pretty sinister. I'm turning off all the apps on this list. And I hope this will free up some system resources on my phone. Next, I'm stopping Google constantly tracking how I used my phone, which apps I use, how long I use them. It means my phone is always running background processes to send this data. Oh, and it's using my data and power to do this, which doesn't exactly help my battery life. I'm turning it off. In the phone settings, click on the Google section. And then we'll go back to the privacy and security section again. And down here is usage and diagnostics. It's just a single toggle switch. Click on it to turn it off. My phone didn't blow up. And now it isn't sending continuous news about my phone to Google. I'm sure they'll be okay. I can get my phone working for me now. This next one I think is my favorite. It stops those super creepy ads from spying on me. This happened the other week in the car. My son asked me, "How does the clutch work?" That night, I start getting YouTube recommendations explaining how a car's clutch and engine works. It wasn't a coincidence. My phone uses my microphone and other data to send me recommendations and targeted advertising. I'm singing like a canary, spilling out keywords and topics like there's no tomorrow or or billionaire shareholders to feed. I never knew I was that interesting. But let's end this right now. In the phone settings, we'll then go into the Google settings and we'll click on this one more time. All services. Click on that at the top and under the privacy and security right at the top here because they are the most important thing on my phone. We will click on ads. Manage the info used to show you ads and measure ad performance. There are three options here when we scroll down. Ads privacy, reset advertising ID and delete advertising ID. Let's click on ads privacy. And I I'm just going to turn off all of these. I think we have three options here. Add topics, app suggested ads, and ad measurements. I don't like the sound of any of these. There's an explanation on screen now. I just don't think I need any of these. So, I'm going to turn off allow ad topics and go back. App suggested ads. I'm going to turn off allow app suggested ads. And then the final one, add measurement. Why Why would I use this? Let's turn it off. If you know why I'd want these, put it in the comments. But I I feel quite comfortable turning these off. I feel slightly ill because it's so obvious, but I truly don't think I need any of this. Now we'll click back to the ads menu and the next option is reset advertising ID to remove all the tracking data associated with my device. I get a warning message. Of course, this replaces the devices advertising ID with a new random number. Apps can still show you ads, but for a while they may not be as relevant or interesting to you. Yeah, because ads are interesting. I think I'll confirm and turn that off. So, I've reset my ID. The next option down is to delete advertising ID. Apps can no longer use this advertising ID to show me personalized ads. If I click on delete advertising ID, I get another what seems like a warning message. This deletes your current advertising ID. Apps can still show you ads, but they may not be as relevant or interesting. I think I will hit delete advertising ID. There's no confirmation button to press. It just does it. Now, it does offer me this option to get a new advertising ID, but I I don't think I'll do that. I'm good. And that's it. When my wife made these changes, the videos on offer on YouTube suddenly became a little weird at first, but they seem to have got back to normal now. I am calling this a Dad Delivers success. If this video helps you feel a little bit more secure or like your phone is working slightly less against you, thank you for saying hi in the comments below or hitting the thumbs up button. It really helps me to keep this channel going. So, thank you. And right here is what YouTube thinks you might want to be watching next.


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