Stop Google From Tracking You

What Google Collects by Default

If you have a Google account, two settings are doing most of the tracking. They are on unless you turned them off.

Web & App Activity - every Google search, every site you visit while signed in to Chrome, every app you open on Android, and what you say to the Google Assistant.
Location History (now "Timeline") - a running map of everywhere you physically take your phone, with timestamps, kept for as long as you let it.

Google uses this to build an advertising profile and to "personalize" results. None of it is required for search, Gmail, or Maps to work.

Turn It Off in One Place

Both controls live in your Google Account under Data & privacy. You can get there from any signed-in device.

1

Open your Google AccountGo to myaccount.google.com and sign in, then choose Data & privacy.

2

Turn off Web & App ActivityUnder History settings, open Web & App Activity and switch it off. Uncheck the Chrome history and audio boxes too.

3

Turn off Location HistoryOpen Location History (Timeline) and turn it off.

4

Delete what is already storedIn each setting choose Delete activity, then "All time," to clear the existing record.

DO THE CLEANUP STEP

Turning the switches off only stops new collection. The history you have already built up stays on Google's servers until you delete it. Set auto-delete to 3 months while you are in there.

Go a Step Further

Turn off Ad personalization - same Data & privacy page, under "Personalized ads."
Use a private search engine - DuckDuckGo or Brave Search do not tie queries to an account.
Sign out of Chrome, or switch to a browser that does not phone home, like Brave or Firefox.
Block the trackers at the network - the settings above stop what Google logs to your account, but Google's trackers also sit on millions of other sites. DNS-level blocking cuts those off across every device.