"Big Brother is watching you..."
The famous words from George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984, which tells the story of a world governed by omnipresent surveillance.
Today, however, many people are under increased paranoia that their every step is being monitored by the government, or by the world's largest corporations.
Not helping their fears, is when people look back on information collected by their Google data, and see that virtually every step they've taken has been documented.
Even things some people might not remember doing themselves.
Redditor AlleKeskitason was curious to hear the most unsettling piece of information people found stored in their google data, leading them to ask:
"People who downloaded their Google data and went through it, what were the most unsettling things you found out they had stored about you?"
Followed My Every Step...
"That there is a map of everywhere I went in the last couple of years that's accurate to the hour."- Crank05
Context Is Everything...
"There's an audio recording of me saying 'check the Jewish boy's penis',"
"I don't remember ever saying that but ok."- MrPingeee
They Don't Always Get It Right...
"I'm the vice-president of a company that I've never heard of, and can't find any other info on it."- leavingdirtyashes
"Apparently I sleepwalk thousands of kilometers and then manage to get back home in time for work."
"Also a bunch of recordings of my computer's fan spinning."
"Ah, Google."
"Hyped up Google."
"Incompetent Google. "
"I know my data is in good hands."- Carkudo
Black And White Cartoon GIFGiphyYou Can't Erase Everything...
"If you use Google Photos and allow Maps to track your location:"
"I took photos that I didn't like, deleted them."
"Weeks later I am just browsing my timeline in Google Maps and those deleted photos are there, tagged to the location."
"Nothing incriminating, just thought you should know that a delete isn't a delete."- kinobe
They Don't Miss A Thing...
"It's not unsettling but I found out that Google can tell when I'm driving a car vs my motorcycle by using the gyroscopes in my phone."- Xtremegulp
It's Not Just Google
"It wasn’t google data that shocked me, I am kind of expecting it to know everything about me."
"This came from instagram."
"My period was very late, so naturally, I told my husband in our very private and quiet home setting, and bought a Clearblue pregnancy test."
"We don’t own tv, Amazon Alexa , google voice or similar."
"I just have reddit and Instagram on my smartphone."
"My period was just late, but the very next day I got bombarded by ads on Instagram about Clearblue and other pregnancy sticks and some other baby sh*t."
"There is no way that it was a coincidence since it was the second time getting a very, very specific ad."
"So the app is listening, and showing me ads accordingly."- lagattaca
Blood Celebrate GIF by Halfsquare DesignsGiphySelective Storage
"Recordings of conversations with my boss over two years."
"I don't know why it only had recordings of us talking and no one else."- FiveOhFive91
Careful What You Say...
"Definitely the voice recordings."
"That should be turned off by default instead of needing to be changed by the user."- mahoujosei100
They Waste No Time...
"All phone activity, opened app, closed app etc, from the very first day I owned my phone, constant check of my GPS, constant check of my device orientation."
"If someone steals your google account, they basically can found out everything there is to find out about you."- linecraftman
Who Dis Star Wars GIF by LEGOGiphyIt is helpful to have an online cloud to store things, saving you paper and stress of remembering where you put it.
What's a bit frightening is that Google and other services are starting to get one step ahead of us when it comes to what they document.
Leaving one to wonder if Big Brother is, in fact, watching us…
@PreetBharara/X
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AMC