Did you receive an email with the following reminder from the Google Account Team? Here’s what you should do.
One day this week nearly all of our Google based email addresses received the above email. On that same day we received four phone calls from clients who had also received the email. First we figured out who was getting it and who wasn’t. After that, we looked into whether people should take action.
Who is getting the Reminder from Google Account Team
The email states that we received this reminder because this Google account has Web and App Activity setting turned on.
Google accounts that have the Web and App Activity setting turned off will not receive this email.
So what is the Web and App Activity setting?
“Web & App Activity is a setting that lets you save to your Google Account the things you do on Google sites, apps, and services, including your searches and associated information, like location and language. It can also give you more personalized experiences across Google, like faster searches and better recommendations.”
This setting, when on, allows Google to collect certain information about your activities while you are logged into a Google account. That information can then be used to provide you with ads that are related to your interests, based on your activities. If this setting is turned off, the ads provided to you will be generic, and might not be of interest to you. Off for this setting is called Paused.
No setting here will increase or decrease the number of ads that you might see. It will only change the applicability of ads based on your online activities.
What should you do
No action is required if you are happy with the way things are working now. Google is proactively sending this reminder so that people can review their settings and make sure they are tuned to what they want.
What you can do, is use this opportunity to review your privacy settings to make sure that they are set the way you want them.
If you click on the link My Activity in the email, you will arrive at the Activity controls page. There may be interim questions about choosing an account, and about confirming backup phone and email accounts. Step through those to arrive here.
If you decide to Turn off the Web and App Activity setting, you will see this.
There are many levels to get through all of these settings. Watch our Data Tracking video on our YouTube channel to see more.
For more help walking through these settings and understanding them, please make an appointment either in our shop or remotely. We are happy to help.
If you would like help with this process, just call or email and we’ll be happy to assist you! If you have specific questions, or if our terminology isn’t clear, please use our contact form to send us a message. Thank you!