How to Delete Your Purchase History on Google
Yes, Google tracks your purchases, but that’s not news. Google’s data collection mechanisms – the information it receives from your Gmail – have been around for a while. If this is your first time hearing about this mess, visit this page to find out everything Google knows about your online shopping.
How does Google get information about your purchase?
How does Google obtain this information? It’s simple. According to the company’s Help Center document :
“Your purchases and bookings are collected from different sources of your Google account, including the following sources:
- Orders placed using Google services such as Google Play Store, Google Express, or Google Assistant.
- Order receipts or confirmations received in Gmail. “
Click on any purchase in that story to view its details, and then you can click on the tiny “i” in the upper right corner to see exactly how Google found out about any particular item you bought. Google will even give you a link, for example, to receive an email related to a purchase.
Can you prevent Google from tracking your purchases?
I admit Google’s implementation is handy if you’re trying to quickly see everything you’ve purchased in a year so you can plan for your detailed tax deductions, but if you don’t have a specific use case for such a purchase history, or don’t like the idea that Google stores this information is somewhere that is easy to access, if someone breaks into your account , you have nothing you can do to stop it. Google does not provide an option to disable this scanning and saving feature of Gmail – at least at the time of this writing.
How to delete purchase history
There is no bulk delete option that clears this shopping page. You can preview each item and use the Delete Purchase button to try and do it, but if those purchases were checked out from your Gmail, you will be reminded that the only way to cancel your purchase is to delete the email. …
While deleting all of these emails will allow you to clear the shopping page, it can take a while to view all of these emails and you will have to print these emails as a PDF or even a hard copy if you want to keep this entry as evidence (or reminder) about your purchases.
The only real option you have to avoid the Google shopping page is not to use Gmail, but I’m sure that’s not exactly what most people will want to do, especially if they’ve spent many years with their current email address. However, if you want to take it a step further and create extra privacy for the messages you send and receive, some good alternative email services include ProtonMail , FastMail, and Tutanota . Trick? Their free versions, if any, aren’t as generous as Google’s offerings.