I created a google takeout and in that zip file I found some files containing a ton of data about me. It has logged every single page I visited while using the google search engine and chrome browser. It even logged every single time I opened an app on my old android phone. It even has VOICE RECORDINGS of me and a log of every time I used google assistant. This is just some of the data and I’m very sure there is even more data they have.
How do you do this?
I have a few dozen google accounts, buy most of them I’m locked out of. Even if I enter the correct username and password on the first try, google says I can’t login because I never associated a phone number to the account.
How can I get this data?
Probably a GDPR data request
Hmm, wouldn’t that make it worse? Because then you have to give your real name, no?
No, most sites have a button stashed in some submenu of the account page that allows you to request your data. It’s either a legal requirement of the GDPR or they just don’t want to deals with individual email requests, I’m not exactly sure.
It usually does take a lot of time for the request to be “processed”, you usually get an email with a zip archive after about a week. I’m not sure if that’s malicious compliance.
You can also send a GDPR request to have them delete all your data, but they do have 1 month to comply and in my experience most services do take that long to “process” your request.
Keep in mind that many services hide these options for non-EU citizens.
As if Google doesn’t already know.
takeout.google.com
That only works if you can log in. Otherwise, it would be a massive privacy problem since anyone could takeout anyone’s data.
Have the same issue on one of my accounts. I can login but when I try to do anything, I need to verify by getting a code over SMS. The thing is, the phone number on that account is an old one I don’t have access to anymore. There is no other verification option, I can’t delete it from my account without verification and I’m definitely not adding my actual number.