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Forums - General - (How To) Remove Your Google Search History Before New Policy Takes Effect.

 

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sega4life on 22 February 2012

 

How to Remove Your Google Search History Before Google's New Privacy Policy Takes Effect

On March 1st, Google will implement its new, unified privacy policy, which will affect data Google has collected on you prior to March 1st as well as data it collects on you in the future. Until now, your Google Web History (your Google searches and sites visited) was cordoned off from Google's other products. This protection was especially important because search data can reveal particularly sensitive information about you, including facts about your location, interests, age, sexual orientation, religion, health concerns, and more. If you want to keep Google from combining your Web History with the data they have gathered about you in their other products, such as YouTube or Google Plus, you may want to remove all items from your Web History and stop your Web History from being recorded in the future.

Here's how you can do that:

1. Sign into your Google account.

2. Go to https://google.com/history (if the link does not work) > Sign In > Account Settings > Services > "View, enable, or disable web history"

3. Click "remove all Web History."

4. Click "ok."

Note that removing your Web History also pauses it. Web History will remain off until you enable it again.

If you have several Google accounts, you will need to do this for each of them.



PS4 Preordered - 06/11/2013 @09:30am

XBox One Preordered - 06/19/2013 @07:57pm

"I don't trust #XboxOne & #Kinect 2.0, it's always connected" as you tweet from your smartphone - irony 0_o

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toadslayer72 on 22 February 2012

What if you already had it paused?



I LOVE paying for Xbox Live! I also love that my love for it pisses off so many people.

irstupid on 22 February 2012

What if you don't have a google account?



sega4life on 22 February 2012

Then your good, it wil not resume until you have it resume.



PS4 Preordered - 06/11/2013 @09:30am

XBox One Preordered - 06/19/2013 @07:57pm

"I don't trust #XboxOne & #Kinect 2.0, it's always connected" as you tweet from your smartphone - irony 0_o

irstupid on 22 February 2012

Google chrome annoys me enough. I don't want someone to open up my browser and see 8 giant preview pics of my most recent visited places. What happens if one is a dirty site?



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sega4life on 22 February 2012
coolbeans said:
sega4life said:

 This protection was especially important because search data can reveal particularly sensitive information about you, including facts about your location, interests, age, sexual orientation, religion, health concerns, and more.

I don't have a Google account, but...why would they go through with this policy if there's this kind of fallout? 


$$$$$$$$$$



PS4 Preordered - 06/11/2013 @09:30am

XBox One Preordered - 06/19/2013 @07:57pm

"I don't trust #XboxOne & #Kinect 2.0, it's always connected" as you tweet from your smartphone - irony 0_o

superchunk on 22 February 2012

lol, this new policy isn't really new. So much hypersensitivity to such a non-issue.

All Google is doing is making it one list vs n different lists and you can remove your history/data at anytime before or after it goes into affect.

People really need to calm down.



superchunk on 22 February 2012
irstupid said:
Google chrome annoys me enough. I don't want someone to open up my browser and see 8 giant preview pics of my most recent visited places. What happens if one is a dirty site?


That's the difference between strong personalization and none. I prefer strong so its all seemless between my computer at home with my personal login and my android phone.

When I want to view something I don't want remembered or potentially shown to others, I simply open a incognito mode window. Its not difficult and allows me the best of both worlds.



superchunk on 22 February 2012
coolbeans said:
sega4life said:
coolbeans said:
sega4life said:

 This protection was especially important because search data can reveal particularly sensitive information about you, including facts about your location, interests, age, sexual orientation, religion, health concerns, and more.

I don't have a Google account, but...why would they go through with this policy if there's this kind of fallout? 


$$$$$$$$$$

Haven't the guys at Google usually avoided going for the quick buck? Or are the originals gone?

He's wrong. Its not for $$ as in profits. Its something they should have done on day one. Google's biggest issue is its stove pipe construction. They start all sorts of new items without a whole lot of communication between themselves. This is why Android isn't as seamless as iOS or WP7. However, that's changing.

Google is finally connecting all their various services behind a single account. Your gmail account is now yoru Google account and it holds the keys to everything Google offers. That's all this really means.

This enables them to better support the process, reduce costs on overlapping structure, provide a better user experience, and promote growth into future products easier.

In the next few years you'll see Android, Chrome OS, Chrome browser, Google TV, Google Plus, and other new devices all merge into a single ecosystem. Its already happening and the center of it all will realistically be Android and Chrome.

Personally, I'm all for it as I love Google's services and overall approach.

Fact of the matter is that Google already has EVERYONE's search and usage history cached. Regardless if you save it to your gmail/google account or not, its tied to your IPs more anonymously. Just the same as Yahoo, Bing, iOS, any ISP, etc.

This simply a step in Google's continued approach to simplifying their structure.



Blacksaber on 22 February 2012

Well I guess my porn and other sketchy searches will be done on my non Google account connected browser... congrats Opera your getting used again!



Former something....