Google Uses Gmail To Track a History of Things You Buy -- and It's Hard To Delete

CNBC's Todd Haselton has discovered that Google saves years of information on the purchases you've made, even outside Google, and pulls this information from Gmail. An anonymous reader shares the report: A page called 'Purchases' shows an accurate list of many -- though not all -- of the things I've bought dating back to at least 2012. I made these purchases using online services or apps such as Amazon, DoorDash or Seamless, or in stores such as Macy's, but never directly through Google. But because the digital receipts went to my Gmail account, Google has a list of info about my buying habits. Google even knows about things I long forgot I'd purchased, like dress shoes I bought inside a Macy's store on Sept. 14, 2015.

But there isn't an easy way to remove all of this. You can delete all the receipts in your Gmail inbox and archived messages. But, if you're like me, you might save receipts in Gmail in case you need them later for returns. There is no way to delete them from Purchases without also deleting them from Gmail -- when you click on the 'Delete' option in Purchases, it simply guides you back to the Gmail message. Google's privacy page says that only you can view your purchases. But it says 'Information about your orders may also be saved with your activity in other Google services ' and that you can see and delete this information on a separate 'My Activity' page. Except you can't. Google's activity controls page doesn't give you any ability to manage the data it stores on Purchases. Google says you can turn off the tracking entirely, but when CNBC tried this, it didn't work.

Google says it doesn't use your Gmail to show you ads and promises it 'does not sell your personal information, which includes your Gmail and Google Account information,' and does 'not share your personal information with advertisers, unless you have asked us to.'

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