I found data.tar.gz in /home/andy/home/files/ and it’s almost 1 Gb in size.
It contains all of /home/andy and all files and sub-directories.
A search found little info about. I would like to know if I can safely delete it?
/home/andy is your home folder. You can reference it in the command line with ~ or ~andy.
The subdirectory ./home/files isn’t something I would expect to be there unless you created it.
The safe thing to do would be to rename /home/andy/home to something like /home/andy/home-old and see what happens. If something complains, you found your answer. If nothing complains after a while, you can probably delete it.
Are you sure you weren’t manually backing up your home folder or something, and just forgot?
I don't think so, but I have done worse things. 
Like changing limits.conf to stop fork bombs.
# This should stop "fork bombs."
hard nproc 300
andy hard nproc 300
I put hard limits to 300 processes.
Then I ran the fork bomb.
After having to hit the reset button, I then learned than root users have no fork limits.
I made another user account and ran it thinking it would work.
It didn't.
I use Backup and Clonezilla.
And I have a script that backups small stuff like documents, scripts, etc.
Do you backup scripts and docs on Drive or Dropbox?
No. Is that a good idea?
I currently back them up to a second drive.
I guess I would have to encrypt them first.
Well if you use Clonezilla, you most likely have an image back up. That should make it easier for you to delete the folder and see what happens.
Just some open thoughts…
Rename the file and see if anything complains or it’s recreated.
Search your ~/.bash_history for tar or gzip commands that may have created it. It looks like such.
The filedate, owner and permissions can always be a clue.
Following HowTos has been known to create such backup files. Been there done that. 
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I am trying to write a Python script to backup my files to Dropbox/Drive, and it seems it’s easier with Dropbox since it has an SDK… I may post that when I’m done and successful- it’s both fun and I’m learning a lot!
I moved the file to another drive.
So far, no repercussions
export HISTFILESIZE=500, so it did not contain any tar statements which could have created the archive.
It was created Wed 08 Aug 2018 06:29:35 PM CDT.