Our advice to the businesses we support is to leave Google where you can: remove Chrome and use Brave, stop using Google Search, and move email and documents off Gmail and Google’s office tools. We explain why in Google Chrome and your privacy, leaving Google Search and Gmail and Google’s office tools.
Not everyone can do all of that at once. Your staff carry Android phones. You have years of files in a Workspace account. A line-of-business app only works in Chrome. This article is the fallback: the settings that reduce what Google collects. They lower your exposure. They do not make Google private.
1. Google account settings
Each person does these once, at myactivity.google.com and myadcenter.google.com, signed in to the account they use on work devices.
- Web & App Activity: off. Google’s help page says it can record activity across Google services, your general location and IP address, and, if a Chrome history box is ticked, browsing history and activity from sites and apps that use Google services. Choose “Turn off and delete activity.” If someone needs it on, set auto-delete to the shortest period.
- Search Services History: off. This newer setting holds searches, AI answers and uploads. Google’s help page says that when it is off, new activity “won’t be… used to train generative AI models, unless you provide feedback.”
- Personalized ads: off. In My Ad Center, turn off personalized ads. You will still see ads, but Google says they will be “based on contextual factors” like the page you are on, not your saved profile.
- Timeline: leave it off. Google says Maps Timeline is “off by default” and stored on the device, but a backup puts “an encrypted copy” on Google’s servers. Work phones rarely need it.
2. Gemini
Gemini is now in Search, Chrome, Gmail and Android. Google’s Gemini Apps Privacy Hub (updated September 24, 2026) sets the rules for personal accounts.
- Turn Keep Activity off. With it on, chats are kept 18 months by default, used to improve Google’s AI, and a subset is read by human reviewers; reviewed chats are kept “for up to three years.” With it off, chats are still kept for 72 hours.
- Review Connected Apps. In Gemini’s settings, Connected Apps controls whether Gemini can reach Gmail, Calendar, messages and more. Turn off anything that isn’t needed.
- Don’t paste confidential data. Google itself says: “Please don’t enter confidential information that you wouldn’t want a reviewer to see.” Put that in your staff AI policy for every AI tool, not just Gemini.
3. Chrome, if you truly can’t remove it
Keep Chrome only for the app that needs it. For each person: don’t sign in to Chrome, keep sync off, and turn off Gemini in Chrome’s settings.
For a business, settings should be enforced, not requested. Chrome reads administrator rules called policies (Windows Group Policy, Mac configuration profiles, or Google’s Admin console). These are the ones we set, as documented in Google’s Chrome Enterprise policy list as of September 2026:
| Policy | Set to | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| BrowserSignin | Disable | No signing in to the browser, so no sync to a Google Account |
| SyncDisabled | Enabled | Turns off Google-hosted sync |
| MetricsReportingEnabled | Disabled | “No usage or crash data is sent to Google” |
| BackgroundModeEnabled | Disabled | Chrome doesn’t keep running after its windows close |
| GenAiDefaultSettings | Do not allow | Default off for covered AI features, including Gemini in Chrome, Lens and AI Mode |
| GeminiSettings | Disabled | Gemini in Chrome not available |
| GeminiActOnWebSettings | Disabled | Gemini can’t take actions on web pages |
| AIModeSettings | Disabled | No AI Mode in the address bar |
| GenAILocalFoundationalModelSettings | Disabled | Chrome won’t download its on-device AI model, and deletes it if present |
| BlockThirdPartyCookies | Enabled | Blocks cross-site tracking cookies |
Google’s own Gemini in Chrome admin page notes that turning off Gemini in Chrome does not turn off the Gemini website or phone apps, so handle those separately. Also set your default search engine by policy to Brave Search.
4. Android phones
This is the one place we accept Google, because it is built into the phone. Starting September 4, 2026, as 9to5Google reported, Google has been replacing Google Assistant with Gemini on Android phones and tablets, with no option to switch back. The Privacy Hub says the Gemini mobile apps can collect “call and message logs, contacts,” that Phone, Messages and WhatsApp connections work “whether Keep Activity is on or off,” and that messages sent through Gemini are “not end-to-end-encrypted by Google.”
- Use a work profile. Google describes an Android work profile as a separate, managed space for work apps and data, marked with a briefcase icon, while personal apps “remain private.” It keeps company data in one controlled place.
- Turn off Gemini’s phone and messaging connections in Connected Apps unless someone genuinely needs them.
- Review app permissions for location, microphone, contacts and messages, and remove what an app doesn’t need.
- Use a company account on company phones, not a personal Gmail, so access ends when someone leaves.
5. Google Workspace admin controls
If you keep Workspace while you plan a move, an administrator should review these in the Google Admin console:
- Gemini in each app. Under Generative AI, then Gemini for Workspace, Google says the default is “on” for Gmail, Drive, Docs, Meet and more. Turn off what you don’t use, remembering that users can still reach an app’s data “when using Gemini in other apps.”
- The Gemini app. It is on by default for licensed adults; service status can switch it off. If you keep it, the Workspace privacy hub lets admins set conversation auto-delete to 3, 18 or 36 months.
- Smart features. Under Account settings, smart features are on by default outside the European Economic Area, Japan, Switzerland and the UK. Set the default to off; note that users can override it, so tell them why.
How FTI helps
Finite Technologies has been an Alaskan technology company since 1990. Through our managed IT services, we apply these settings by policy across your computers and phones, check them after updates, and plan the larger move to Brave, Brave Search and business email on your own domain when you are ready.
Talk to us about reducing what Google collects from your business
