Google Gmail Tracks All of Your Purchases – Here’s How to Delete Them
Google keeps track of all purchases you make by monitoring your Gmail account. This applies to all purchases, regardless of the payment method or where you made the purchase. If the vendor sent a receipt to the buyer’s Gmail account, then Google tracks it. Sales from non-Google websites like Amazon are tracked as are sales at retail locations like your local coffee shop.
According to Google’s purchases page, “ We don’t use any information from your Gmail messages to serve you ads, and that includes the email receipts and confirmations shown on the Purchase page.” Only a logged in user can view their purchase history. Purchase information can be deleted any time, but it isn’t exactly easy to accomplish that.
Not only does Google track Google related purchases like buying additional space on Google drive or Google Play Store purchases, but it also tracks anything you ever ordered and received a receipt for using your Gmail box. Every coffee shop I ever bought a cappuccino at is recorded on my Google Purchases page. Things like cinema tickets and restaurant reservations are tracked too. Many of these email receipts are generated by sellers who use Square to process payments. Although I don’t’ want email receipts, the seller can send a receipt automatically, until permission is revoked.
Although Google claims it does not sell your data or use it for advertisements, purchases are shared with other Google services. For example, if you purchase airfare and receive the electronic receipt in your Gmail, then the reservation is automatically added to your Google calendar. Google users can view their activity on other Google services on their “My Activity” page. https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity
How do I Find My Google Purchases?
- Go to https://myaccount.google.com/purchases
- Sign in with your Google account credentials
This page shows a list of all purchases that Google has tracked. The history goes back years. The purchases history is saved regardless of payment used. Select any purchase order to see your receipt and order number.
How Do I Clear My Google Purchase History?
Google does not make it easy to delete your purchase history. It would seem that you could navigate to your My Activity page and delete all purchase. I tried to delete my history for the past month. I selected a date range and chose the dropdown menu to delete all history labeled as “Shopping.” It did not work. To delete purchases tracked by Google, you have to view each purchase and delete them individually.
- Go to https://myaccount.google.com/purchases
- Sign in with your Google account credentials
- Click on the purchase to view the details
- Click “REMOVE PURCHASE” at the bottom of the close-up view
