Edit your online visibility with Google About Me

Google's About Me page enables you to manage Google account information that are publicly available on the Internet.

Whenever you create a social media account, and sometimes others as well, you expose some information to the public.

While there is no guarantee that anyone else stumbles upon the information ever, it means that it is theoretically possible that it happens.

Public means that the contents get indexed by the social network site and third-party sites as well. If you use a search engine to find information about someone on the Internet, these public information may be returned.

Since that is not always desired, social networking sites provide you with options to manage what you reveal about yourself up to a point.

Google's About Me page makes this simple. All you need to do is visit https://aboutme.google.com/ in your browser of choice, sign in to your Google Account if you have not already, to see what others see about you.

The page lists among other things public contact information, work history, places, sites, gender, birthday and other personal information.

Next to each section is an edit button that you can click on to add, edit or remove information from it. For instance, you may quickly change the visibility of an email address displayed to the public, or add a new site that you contribute to.

The information provided are a reflection of what is shown on the Google Plus about page. While you may edit them on the page as well, it is not as straightforward as on the About Me page as it lists information visible to only the account owner as well on that page.

Plus, it seems easier to open the Google About Me url than the Google Plus url.

The About Me page links to the Privacy Checkup online tool which lets you review and adjust "what data Google uses to personalize your experience" and "update what information you share with friends or make public".

Here is a quick rundown of what it allows you to do:

• Choose what Google+ profile information are shared with others.
• Whether people with your phone number find you when they search for it.
• Choose who can see your YouTube videos, likes, and subscriptions.
• Choose whether to remove geo location information from photos you share.
• Manage Google activity and history logging, e.g. location history.
• Select whether you want ads based on interests.

Closing Words

Google's About Me page does not reinvent the wheel but it makes it easy to edit account information quickly on a single page.

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