How to Remove Your Google Search History

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The EFF has a handy guide to removing your search history for those of you that want to do a little clean-up before Google implements its new privacy policy.

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.
 
So if going to google.com/history just asks me if I want to enable history does that mean that I don't have a history to clear?
 
My web history was already disabled (or should I say never enabled). Guess I lucked out.
 
So if going to google.com/history just asks me if I want to enable history does that mean that I don't have a history to clear?

was same for me, but i was told that from march 1st it will automaticly switch on. so i switched on then did clear and pause.

shame we have to go through all this. google are s
 
Wow, it had everything I have searched for back to August 6th of 2006.
 
Whew, thankfully my web history was never turned on for a second there I thought that I was going to start getting spam for uncensored big tittied asian schoolgirls.
 
What I don't understand is by what right do Google or any company look at and use mine web history? It's mine, not theirs.
Don't just tell me it is in their 'terms of service', same thing apply there, by what right would they claim a rule like that?
Now if they paid me for it, say $30 a day, then I might consider letting them use my data.
 
They are using your search history to help you search. That's all....
 
What I don't understand is by what right do Google or any company look at and use mine web history? It's mine, not theirs.
Don't just tell me it is in their 'terms of service', same thing apply there, by what right would they claim a rule like that?
Now if they paid me for it, say $30 a day, then I might consider letting them use my data.

Huh? Why are you acting like they're renting out your spare bedroom?

You're using their service, not the other way around.
 
Huh? Why are you acting like they're renting out your spare bedroom?

You're using their service, not the other way around.

Yup... This.

Don't use aservice you AREN'T paying for if you don't want them manipulating your information. Use another search engine if this bothers you.
 
Thanks for the heads up, needed to pause that shit.

i've also stopped using chrome.. a shame too because i liked it.
 
What does Google plan to do with this history? Is this just about targeted ads to me? Or does my data show up for other people too?
 
I also had it turned off but I turned it on and cleared it just to be sure. I use chrome as my primary browser, should I make the switch back to FireFox?
 
They aren't a charity, you know. Any juicy info they got about you they are converting into revenue one way or another.

Most of the information logged and used is for debugging, product improvements, or because users want it. They really don't need much information to show you ads, and it doesn't take much to do targeting either.

Yup... This.

Don't use aservice you AREN'T paying for if you don't want them manipulating your information. Use another search engine if this bothers you.

Paid services log your information too. User information lets you build better products and track bugs, you won't keep your users very long if you don't log at least *SOME* information.
 
So if you dont use Gmail, and never sign into your google acct, (I never go into mine), do they have anyway to associate info with you?
 
What I don't understand is by what right do Google or any company look at and use mine web history? It's mine, not theirs.
Don't just tell me it is in their 'terms of service', same thing apply there, by what right would they claim a rule like that?
Now if they paid me for it, say $30 a day, then I might consider letting them use my data.

You're not forced to use Google, you know. But if you use their free service, you're bound to their terms. Seems reasonable to me.
 
He is right, If you use Google, you pay them with your Personal information and habits. They offer free services to fund their advertisement business, which in turn funds their "free" services.

Bing actually works pretty well, and MS pays for it with the profits from office and windows, and other applications that they sell.
 
i stumbled across this the other day when turning off a google service thinger... good to know
 
Everyone switch to Bing even though they probably do the same thing and send them a message ;-)
 
What I don't understand is by what right do Google or any company look at and use mine web history? It's mine, not theirs.
Don't just tell me it is in their 'terms of service', same thing apply there, by what right would they claim a rule like that?
Now if they paid me for it, say $30 a day, then I might consider letting them use my data.

Try http://www.duckduckgo.com.

DDG is awesome. They protect your privacy and you can customize just about anything about it. They even let you turn off their ads altogether if they bother you.
How many search engines would let you do that?
 
Try http://www.duckduckgo.com.

DDG is awesome. They protect your privacy and you can customize just about anything about it. They even let you turn off their ads altogether if they bother you.
How many search engines would let you do that?

After seeing everything that was just in my search.

This I shall try, and thankfully Opera already has it embedded as a search option:

d F U Google = win
 
My gosh, on my personal Gmail account, it had my entire internet history going back to 2006. I don't even remember turning this on. :eek:

Thankfully, it was shut off for my entire Google Apps account, so all my users and my second account are safe.
 
duckduckgo vs startpage anyone?

Also, what is the final word on chrome? no longer safe to use?
 
Hmm, all this arguing and suggestions.. All I need to know is how to can access the browsing history of everyone I know on Facebook. :D
 
duckduckgo vs startpage anyone?

Also, what is the final word on chrome? no longer safe to use?

startpage is ixquick and they allow you to use a proxy server for searches, I just checked that duckduckgo and it does not provide proxy searches so ixquick wins.
 
So if you dont use Gmail, and never sign into your google acct, (I never go into mine), do they have anyway to associate info with you?

Sadly they have ways.

First off, I do not use Google+ nor have I ever added people to it, but if you have a google account, you have google+. We are forcibly added to google+. I checked mine real quick for fun. Tons of IRL friends were already in there. WITF. How do they know who my IRL friends are? I don't even use gmail, so it's not like they could have checked through my emails. Some of them I have not talked to in a long time mind you, but they were in there.

Now if that's not scary enough, they somehow know that I rented a jackhammer twice at Home Depot. After I rented it, I started getting ads on all the sites I visit about tool rental stores. HOW IN THE HELL?! This is no joke. I have no idea how they found out this data. My only guess is they have access to my credit card transactions somehow. Could be they got it through my banking site if they have any google product setup on the site.

The whole google+ thing is what has me turned off the most though. It's one thing for them to use my search data for w/e in the back end, and no actual humans seeing it, but who knows what they'll do with google+. Will everything you search for end up on your wall? Will friends or even the public be able to see what sites you visit?

Not to mention there have been cases of google employees snooping on people's private info. Not cool.

https://duckduckgo.com/ is now my new search engine. I am slowly degoogling myself. It's honestly not that hard, most google products have replacements, it's just that google has become so part of our lives that it's too common. We easily forget there are other search engines out there, and other alternatives to their products.

There's a few things I'll continue to use such as youtube and google adsense, but even google adsense, I may start looking at an alternative. But it's the best paying network I've used so it will be a tough decision.
 
Oh and another thing, it's probably a good idea to use separate google accounts for everything. It never really crossed my mind just how bad of an idea it was to say "yes" when originally asked to link my accounts together. Then again don't think I really had a choice, after a while they just forced it.
 
First off, I do not use Google+ nor have I ever added people to it, but if you have a google account, you have google+. We are forcibly added to google+. I checked mine real quick for fun. Tons of IRL friends were already in there. WITF. How do they know who my IRL friends are? I don't even use gmail, so it's not like they could have checked through my emails. Some of them I have not talked to in a long time mind you, but they were in there.

Unless you put people into circles, they aren't in your G+. Period. They did not auto-add *anyone*. And any contacts that are listed are ones *you* added or your friends that listed you.

Now if that's not scary enough, they somehow know that I rented a jackhammer twice at Home Depot. After I rented it, I started getting ads on all the sites I visit about tool rental stores. HOW IN THE HELL?! This is no joke. I have no idea how they found out this data. My only guess is they have access to my credit card transactions somehow. Could be they got it through my banking site if they have any google product setup on the site.

Uh, no they don't. You probably did a search for jackhammers or something similar that triggered it - or it is a coincidence that you are particularly sensitive to.

Not to mention there have been cases of google employees snooping on people's private info. Not cool.

Link? I've never heard of this before, and Google has very, very strict policies about who gets access to data and how much of it.

We easily forget there are other search engines out there, and other alternatives to their products.

Sure, there are alternatives - but they are all worse, so why bother? Why would I want to use an inferior product?
 
duckduckgo vs startpage anyone?

For search I of course use Google - it's still the best. I'm also fresh out of tinfoil hats, though.

Also, what is the final word on chrome? no longer safe to use?

Chrome is, and always has been, safe to use. If you want to go into super paranoid mode, just go into the privacy settings and uncheck the 4 checkboxes that are there or whatever - that's all the privacy-focused Chromium builds do (like SRWare Iron).
 
So I don't get it, I've had my history on for 5 or 6 years simply because in 10 years I'd like to know exactly how many searches I have made, I like stats, I never search for videos on Youtube I just have a few channels I like bookmarked and go directly to them rather than trying to navigate that garbage site, I don't use any other Google service, is there really any point is turning history off?

There have been times when I've searched for some pretty sick stuff but really, I was just curious, I wont see chicks messing with horses pop up on Youtube or anything will I? so technically since Google is still? going to use the data it has already collected, the damage is done
 
Link? I've never heard of this before, and Google has very, very strict policies about who gets access to data and how much of it.

Here's an example. I got it from donttrack.us, one of DuckDuckGo's policy pages.

DDG and Ixquick/Startpage are both good search engines. I happen to prefer DDG because it's an American company and I like the interface better. I keep Tor running in the background (DDG operates its own exit enclave, btw) if I need to access sketchy sites.

FoxyProxy is set up to automatically switch to Tor when I'm on anything owned by Google :D
 
Chrome is, and always has been, safe to use. If you want to go into super paranoid mode, just go into the privacy settings and uncheck the 4 checkboxes that are there or whatever - that's all the privacy-focused Chromium builds do (like SRWare Iron).

There's nothing that stops them from tracking you outside of those settings. Though you could just run a packet sniffer to see if it does anything weird such as send data to google. Idealy this packet sniffer would have to be on a separate machine that is on a mirrored port, to rule out the possibility that they have a way to detect it. Though honestly I think it's unlikely that chrome does anything extra to track us. It would only take one tech savvy person in the world to do the test I described and once the cat is out of the bag it would be very bad publicity for Google Chrome.

I see 3M stocks going up with all this google stuff though. They are one of the primary makers of tin foil hats.
 
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