Google Privacy Settings You Should Change Right Now

Google Chrome collects so much data about users that some people call it spyware. One way to curb that is to avoid signing into the browser with your Google account. Unfortunately, Google made that harder a few years ago. 

Now, when you sign into Gmail or any other Google service, it automatically signs you into the browser, too, and starts sending off all kinds of data about your browsing to your personal account.

However, there’s a buried setting to disable that. Follow these steps, and you can log in to Google websites and apps without logging into Chrome. Or, as described below, you can try a different browser altogether, and there are good reasons to consider it if you care about privacy. 

To turn off Chrome’s automatic sign-in: On a computer, click the icon with three dots in the top right corner of Chrome > Settings > Sync and Google Services > Switch off the Allow Chrome Sign-In toggle. Ironically, this will then take you to the Google account login page. Log in, then you’ll see a popup in Chrome. Select Use Chrome Without An Account.

If you’ve already logged in to Chrome, logging out is simple.

To sign out of Chrome: In Chrome, click the icon with your profile picture or the first letter of your username in the top right corner > Sign out. (The instructions are slightly different if you’ve already turned on Chrome’s data syncing. In the same menu, click “Syncing to” and then hit “Turn off” on the next page to be signed out automatically.)

Or you can stay logged in while disabling some or all of Chrome’s data-syncing functions.

To turn off Chrome’s sync settings: After signing in to Chrome, click the icon with three dots in the top right corner > Settings > Sync and Google Services > Manage What You Sync > Switch off the Sync Everything toggle > Switch off the toggles for some or all of the categories.