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If you lose your Android phone or it gets stolen, you can use the Android Device Manager tool to track it down. The online tool can locate your phone and even let you ring it to alert you to its location -- even if it's set to silent or vibrate. You can also remotely wipe your device if it has been stolen and you don't think you can get it back.
Note that if your phone has been stolen, don't attempt to apprehend the thief on your own -- alert the authorities and let them handle it. Google's unified messaging application, Hangouts, has location sharing built right in, so if you want your friends to know where you are, you don't have to type in your address or try to figure out the cross streets -- just tap the location pin next to the emoticon icon in the text entry box to share your location with whomever is in the Hangout with you at the time.
Android-powered phones have a notification app called Google Now that brings up useful and relevant information at the right time, such as letting you know when it's time to leave to get to work on time. When you label both your work and home locations, Google Now can also alert people when you leave work and when you're about to arrive home. The Google Play store has many apps you can use to share location information see Resources.
You can use these apps to keep tabs on your children when they go out after school, for example, or have all your corporate phones GPS monitored so you know if your drivers are speeding. Many of these apps give you finer control over GPS phone tracking than is available with the standard suite of Google products.
In most jurisdictions it is not legal to track people's movements without their permission or knowledge. Google's products allow the person being tracked to opt in and therefore provide you the necessary permission. As with your web history, you're free to put your voice history on pause permanently or otherwise , and you can also delete some or all of your saved voice activity. Tap the Settings button shaped like a gear , then tap Remove Items.
The choices are the same as they were for your web history: You can delete the past hour of your saved voice commands, the past day, a week, a month, or all of them. Remember, though, that Android may become less adept at deciphering your commands with your voice history switched off.
You can access your YouTube history, your web history, your voice activity, and more from the "Account History" screen in the Google Settings app. Your YouTube searches and plays are diligently saved in your YouTube history, all in the name of helping YouTube serve up better search results and recommended video clips.
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The list comprises searches from any device that's signed into your Google account. To remove an individual search from the list, tap its three-dot menu button, then tap Remove from Search history.
You can also tap the Clear all search history button to delete the entire list. Sorry, you can't just zap part of your history, as you can with your Google web and voice history. To keep YouTube from saving your searches from this moment on, tap the "Pause search history" button—and yes, you can always turn it back on later. To see the history of YouTube videos you've actually played: From your YouTube search history, tap the Watch History button near the top of the screen to switch to a list of your played YouTube videos.
From here, you can view, delete, or pause your history of watched YouTube videos, just as you did with your YouTube search history. Here's perhaps the creepiest way in which Android keeps track of what you're doing—or, in this case, where you've been. If you give Google the go-ahead, Android can keep tabs on the location of your various devices, periodically pinging Google's servers with the position of your Android phones and tablets—even when you're not actively using your devices.
You can even pull up a map showing where for example your Android phone's been on any given day. So, what's the point of all this? According to Google, your "location history" helps apps like Google Now to be more prescient when it comes to, say, letting you know how long your commute is going to be, or which restaurants are on the way home, or what's playing at a nearby movie theater. Tap Google Location History , then uncheck any or all of the devices whose location you don't want to be shared.
Note: Just because you've paused your Google web history or deleted your location history doesn't mean no one's monitoring your Android activity. All your web site visits are duly recorded by your ISP, for example, while you wireless carrier can track "pings" from your Android phone on nearby cell towers.
Ben has been writing about technology and consumer electronics for more than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since , Ben joined TechHive in , where he covers smart home and home entertainment products.
Ultrabooks Chromebooks Laptop Accessories. Your web history Image: Ben Patterson You can easily turn your web history off to prevent your Android device from tracking of all your Google searches. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission.