The Dashboards You've Never Opened
I mentioned this in passing in an earlier post : sign into a Google account and it keeps a running log of what you do — searches, YouTube history, location, if you let it — sitting in a dashboard most people never open. That line was true enough to be worth its own post, because it’s not just Google. Every major account you use keeps one of these, and the settings to turn it down are already sitting there, not locked behind some future privacy law that might pass.
Every account already has this dashboard
This isn’t a hidden feature. It’s usually one menu deep, under a name like “Activity,” “Data & Privacy,” or “Privacy Checkup.” The reason almost nobody’s seen it isn’t that it’s hard to find — it’s that nothing ever prompts you to look. You set the account up once, clicked through the defaults, and never had a reason to go back. The dashboards below take about five minutes each once you know where they are.
Google: what’s actually being logged
Go to myactivity.google.com. This is the big one — by default it logs your searches, the sites you visit through Chrome if you’re signed in, your YouTube watch and search history, and your location history if it’s on. Turn off what you don’t want tracked under Web & App Activity, Location History, and YouTube History, and set auto-delete to three months on whatever you keep instead of leaving it to accumulate forever. Separately, check myadcenter.google.com and turn off ad personalization — that’s the profile built specifically to target ads at you, and it’s a different setting from the activity log itself.
Apple: a smaller ledger, still worth checking
Apple’s business model doesn’t run on your data the way Google’s does, and it shows — there’s less here. Still worth five minutes: Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements, where you can turn off sharing iPhone Analytics and Improve Health & Activity. And under Settings → Privacy & Security → Apple Advertising, turn off Personalized Ads. Smaller ledger, but no reason to leave any of it on.
Meta, if you still use it
If you’re still on Facebook or Instagram, Meta keeps one of the most detailed activity logs of any platform — it tracks your activity across a huge number of third-party sites and apps that use Meta’s ad tools, whether you’re actively using Facebook at that moment or not. In Settings → Accounts Center → Your information and permissions → Off-Facebook activity, you can see what’s been reported and clear the history. It’s worth doing even if you rarely open the app; the tracking doesn’t require you to.
Do it this week
- Google: myactivity.google.com — turn off what you don’t need, auto-delete the rest.
- Google: myadcenter.google.com — turn off ad personalization.
- Apple: turn off Analytics sharing and Personalized Ads.
- Meta, if applicable: clear Off-Facebook activity and check what’s still connected.
None of this requires a new tool or a subscription. It’s settings that already exist, in accounts you already have — the only thing missing was a reason to go look.
This closes out the sequence on the guide page , if you’ve been working through it.