author: Bart Swiatek
Google Collects Our Purchase History - Here's How to Remove it
The CNBC TV station reports that Google collects data about purchases we make on the Internet. Information is collected through messages sent to Gmail mailboxes.
IN A NUTSHELL:
- Google collects information about our purchases via Gmail;
- Deleting data is time-consuming and requires deleting the associated e-mail;
- Information may be collected by other applications;
- The privacy settings page does not have a bookmark associated with shopping.
CNBC channel reports that Google is quietly collecting information about what we do online. This is possible thanks to various confirmations sent to our Gmail mailbox. There is a special tool that allows you to check your purchase history. The company swears that the data is not used for commercial purposes - e.g. to personalize advertisements - and we can delete them at any time.
“To help you easily view and keep track of your purchases, bookings and subscriptions in one place, we’ve created a private destination that can only be seen by you,” a Google spokesperson told CNBC. “You can delete this information at any time. We don’t use any information from your Gmail messages to serve you ads, and that includes the email receipts and confirmations shown on the Purchase page.”
Unfortunately, in practice the deletion of the data is a bit troublesome. We need to delete each entry individually (you need to open it and then click the blue "Delete purchase" button), and worse, deleting information from your shopping history requires you to delete an email from your mailbox. For many people it will not be a very convenient solution - if you want to keep access to important data (e.g. for the purpose of a possible complaint), we will have to manually archive them, or send a message to another mailbox.
What is interesting, the implemented method of deleting information is not fully in line with the company's privacy regulations. On the shopping history page, the company informs you that data may also be stored on other Google services. Supposedly, we can delete them by going to the Privacy Management tab, where you can find... there is no section dedicated to the Shopping Tool.
Assurances that data are not used for commercial purposes are comforting, but the mere fact that similar information is collected in a separate section may cause concern to users, especially given the impractical and excessively complex way in which it is deleted. Why are such activities carried out?
Interestingly, the matter arose shortly after the I/O conference, during which Google's chief executive Sundar Pichai argued that "privacy should not be a luxury good". In response to CNBC reports, the company announced that it would simplify the settings screen. We can only hope that the Group will listen to its CEO's voice and that the amendments will eliminate the problems mentioned in the text.