It’s no surprise that we often disclose our personal information when using the internet. Your computer sends a lot of data to Google whenever you perform a Google search or view something on YouTube.
According to a recent study, Google collects the most data out of all the major tech giants, including Twitter, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook.
If you are worried about how much of your data is getting tracked by Google, you can learn about this by using an app developed by Bert Hubert.
The app which goes by the name Googerteller will beep each time a user’s computer sends information to Google.
How does Googerteller work?
According to 9to5Google, Googerteller uses a list of IP addresses that Google has publicly made available and that are connected to the various Google services.
Googerteller will beep whenever it notices that your computer is linked to one of those IP addresses to let you know that the information is being shared with Google.
I made a very very simple tool that makes some noise every time your computer sends data to Google. Here a demo on the official Dutch government jobs site. The noise starts while typing the domain name already. Code, currently Linux only: https://t.co/ZjKeOSfYff pic.twitter.com/dEr8ktIGdo
— Bert Hubert (@bert_hu_bert) August 21, 2022
In addition, Hubert demonstrated the software in a post on Twitter. As the viewer navigates the Dutch government’s careers website, they can see in the video that Google Chrome beeps after each keystroke as it makes requests for autocomplete suggestions.
Will the Googerteller function with all gadgets?
Unfortunately, Googerteller is only intended to function with Linux-based operating systems currently — Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora and others. Anyone who is interested in Googerteller can get the app for free.
Google has always faced a lot of criticism for collecting user data. The network of Google spans a number of services, including analytics, advertising, and more.
According to a recent survey by StockApps.com, Google collects the most user data out of the top five internet corporations by keeping track of 39 different pieces of personal data for each user.
The report further states that Apple is the company that values privacy the most and stores the data required to keep customers’ accounts active.