The coronavirus pandemic has brought to light what many may have long forgotten: Google is constantly watching us.

Like many consumers with toilet paper, Google has been hoarding masses of data for years, tracking your location and habits through your smartphone and Google apps.

The scale of the surveillance has now become clear again with the release of data that visualises how our movement has changed under the lockdown.

How often we go to restaurants, how much time we spend at home, how much less time we're spending at the office: Google's "Community Mobility Reports" are fascinating and scary in equal measure.

Italy, one of the world's worst-hit countries, saw a 90% drop in park visits, for example, according to Google's data.

The data is aggregated and anonymous, and does not allow to make any conclusions about individual users. And yet this does not change the fact that this shows how Google is watching the movement of countless individuals.

The data, while giving us a fascinating glimpse at how urban society has retreated from public spaces, serves as a reminder that everywhere you take your smartphone, Google follows.

For anyone who wants to change this, you can deactivate your location history in your mobile device in your Google Account under Activity Settings.

After that, Google will no longer record locations you have visited with your device. However, all previous movements will remain stored. These must be deleted in the Google Maps timeline.

 - dpa