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



## ekim68 (Jul 8, 2003)

> 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:


Here


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## eddie5659 (Mar 19, 2001)

Thanks, will look at that this weekend :up:


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

I have never had a history to clear. 

Always says..."Your search history is currently empty."


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## fredbear99 (Mar 8, 2011)

if I don't have gmail do I still need to delete history when using google chrome


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## ekim68 (Jul 8, 2003)

hewee said:


> I have never had a history to clear.
> 
> Always says..."Your search history is currently empty."


Mine said the same Harry...Maybe an earlier version had different defaults....


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

fredbear99 said:


> if I don't have gmail do I still need to delete history when using google chrome


If you do not need any google site and or google cookie to be set for a site to work then you can block all google.com cookies and nothing should get tracked.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

ekim68 said:


> Mine said the same Harry...Maybe an earlier version had different defaults....


Or maybe Firefox add-ons help.

Like CustomizeGoogle or OptimizeGoogle

Just look at all the things Google has control over. They own so many sites and have so many programs that most people get hooked in some way.

OptimizeGoogle
*THIS WILL DISAPPEAR SOON.*

Better download both now before they are gone.
Lets hope someone can help and take over the program to keep it updated.


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## Coastal (Sep 5, 2010)

ekim68 said:


> Here


Remove items from your Web History
If you'd like to remove items from your Web History, just follow these steps:
Remove items from your Web History
If you'd like to remove items from your Web History, just follow these steps:

Visit your Web History page at google.com/history .
Select any items you don't want and click the Remove button. There's also a link to Remove all Web History.
You can delete information from Web History using the remove feature, and it will be removed from the service.

However, as is common practice in the industry, and as outlined in the Google Privacy Policy, Google maintains a separate logs system for auditing purposes and to help us improve the quality of our services for users.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
To learn more about removing items from your Web History, please read the Web History Privacy FAQ .

I take it they will still store information about web history by them saying Google maintains a separate log and the Google Privacy Policy gives them the right to do so. 
Seems we have to assume we in America are no longer afforded privacy via computers, smart phones, etc. it has been reported they are not recording chat or texting YET!


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## ekim68 (Jul 8, 2003)

Actually once you think about the whole of it, when we go online we're at 'one with the internet'...The best security is to not go online....:up:


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

They already have your web search history from all browsers, including Chrome, if you have Google products installed on your machine. They are stored under a unique ID on your computer that allows the to match the data to the machine. So anything of your current history that they collect later will only be duplicates of what they already have now, anyway. The policy only changes the fact that the data used to be stored separately, and now it will all be combined. Data that they use to gather by scanning your emails, locations you visit in Google Earth, Picasa, Google Desktop, Google+, and documents on Google Docs will now combine with data from your machine to create a full picture of you.

Everything that Google gives away for "free" comes with a privacy price-tag. They don't sell software - they sell you. Any thing they can "give" you that allows them to gather more data is a help to them. Take a look at your system services - chances are that if you have installed any Google software, you have at least one, maybe more, Google services running every time you boot your machine.

Google Accused of Not Being Forthright in Report to Feds
Google Accused of Bypassing Apple Browser To Track Users
Google Caught Tracking Your iPhone
Google caught pilfering Kenyan business directory in sting operation
Is Google ignoring Internet privacy?
Why Are Apple, Google Tracking Your Phone? (Stored in *unencrypted* text file)
How To Stop Google From Tracking Your Internet Activity (though they likely use other methods that have not yet been revealed to the public)


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

ekim68 said:


> Actually once you think about the whole of it, when we go online we're at 'one with the internet'...The best security is to not go online....:up:


There are ways to be safe. But they go from the easy to the extreme, depending how safe someone wants to be. Using Liberté Linux provides probably the highest level of security possible. It even wipes the memory and shuts down if suddenly the media are removed. That prevents someone from retrieving encrypted hard drive keys and so on from the memory modules after the machine is shut down (the memory is retained when the machine powers off and can be fairly easily recovered. Of course, the easy way to recover those keys, if the machine has had a blue screen, is to use the memory dump which will contain the encryption keys, and the page file may have them, too.). It is useful for spies, reporters, or almost anyone in a hostile environment. Or someone who really wants to be private. It also allows connections to the "deep" web that people can't easily access from normal browsers. The ring of pedophiles busted and revealed by Anonymous last year was in the deep web, not sites most people even could get to.

Remember that Google has catalogued fewer than 1% of all web pages - that leaves a lot of the internet hidden and inaccessible to most people.

Sabayon Linux also allows you to choose on boot whether all your connections go through "The Onion Router" or not.


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## ekim68 (Jul 8, 2003)

Wow, good stuff Elvandil, thanks....:up:


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

ekim68 said:


> Wow, good stuff Elvandil, thanks....:up:


I've been warning people about Google for a long time, but their "Do No Evil" slogan seems to make people think they are all warm and fuzzy and wouldn't do anything unethical. In most cases, they are skating very close to the edge of extant laws, but not always, as the articles show.

And they are just the tip of the iceberg. They are just one of the many, many companies gathering information about people. No matter how pure the motives, and even if all they want to do is sell you something, which I heartily support, the fact is that the data exists. Just imagine if someone who was out to get you got a hold of it all.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Here's a recent one about the new "privacy" (LOL) policy:

Google to dig deeper into users' lives -
Starting Thursday, new privacy policy will let company learn more about you


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