It knows you better than you know yourself. It knows every smartphone you’ve thought about buying, video you’ve watched on YouTube, every embarrassing ailment you’ve suffered. Show
It’s your Google Activity (formerly known as Google Web & App History)—and it knows everything you’ve searched for dating back to 2005. If you’ve ever thought about clearing your Google search history before, this post will teach you how to permanently delete your Google history to enhance your internet privacy and prevent your search and browsing data from following you around forever. Warning: If you use G Suite (formerly Google Apps for Work) at your job, it is vital that you find out your company’s acceptable use and data retention policies before you delete anything! Jump to…Download all your Google data What you do online is YOUR businessExpressVPN believes what you do on the internet is private. Nobody should be keeping tabs on what you do online—not without your knowledge and permission, anyway. Unless you’ve disabled it, Google Activity has been keeping a record of your online activity for the last decade. It knows every link you’ve followed, every image you’ve clicked on, and the URLs you’ve entered in the address bar (even if you’ve been clearing your browser search history regularly). Google uses all this data to construct a profile about you, including your age, gender, languages, and interests, and filters search results and ads for you based on your profile. Might be clever, but this is also an incredible loss of your privacy. You can stop Google’s data collection by disabling Google’s ability to track you. Before you begin: Back up your Google ActivityIn April 2015, Google quietly released a feature enabling you to download all of your Google data. Consider saving your search data before you delete and disable it forever. Back to top How to download all your Google dataGoogle’s Takeout feature lets you download data from all of the Google products you use, including your Google Search history, Gmail, Calendar, Chrome, Google Photos, Maps, and more. Here’s how to use Takeout to download all your Google data. 1. Go to the Google Takeout “Download your data” page and select the data you’d like to download. By default, all of the boxes are selected. Select Next. 2. Select your archive format and delivery method, then select Create archive. (We stuck with the default settings.) 3. You’ll receive a notification when the archiving process is complete. In this example, we received an email with a link to download our archive. Now that you’ve downloaded an archive of your data, you’re ready to delete your history. Back to top How to delete your browser search history on a computerClearing your browser history is NOT the same as clearing your Google Web & App Activity. When you clear your browser history, you’re only deleting the history that’s locally stored on your computer. Clearing your browser history doesn’t do anything to the data stored on Google’s servers. However, if you’re concerned about privacy and protecting your data, you should empty your browser cache regularly, which includes your Google search history as well as any stored cookies, logins, and passwords saved in your browser. Use these steps to delete your Google search history in any browser. Delete your search history in Safari:
Delete your search history in Firefox:
Delete your search history in Chrome and Chromium:
Delete your search history in Brave:
Delete your search history in Vivaldi:
Delete your search history in Microsoft Edge:
Delete your search history in Internet Explorer:
How to delete your browser search history on a phone or tabletDelete your Safari search history on an iPhone or iPad:
Delete your Chrome search history on an iPhone or iPad:
Delete your search history on an Android device:
Back to top How to delete all your Google activityUse these steps to delete data about all your Google activity, including your searches, video searches, and any ads you’ve clicked on across all your devices. Delete your Google activity on your computer1. Go to the My Activity page, select Delete activity by on the left-hand menu. 2. You can choose how far back you want to delete your Google search history and activity. Select All time from the range of options to delete everything. 3. Choose which Google services to delete your search history and activity from. Click the Select all option, then click Next. 4: Google will ask you if you want to confirm that you would like to delete your activity. Select DELETE. 5: Your screen should now say “Deletion complete.” Click OK. Delete your Google search history and activity on your mobile device
Back to top Delete your Google Maps search historyTo see your Maps history before you delete your search history, follow the steps below.
On your computer
On your mobile device
Consider using an open-source alternative to Google Maps. Back to top How to stop (or “pause”) Google from saving your search history and activityGoogle doesn’t provide a way to permanently disable it from saving your activity, but you can hit pause. Use these steps to hit pause on Google saving your activity. 1. Go to the Activity controls page, where you’ll see a section for “Web & App Activity.” Slide the switch to the left. 2. Google will ask if you’d like to pause your Web & App Activity. Select PAUSE. 3. Check to see if your activity is paused. The screen should say “Web & App Activity (paused)” and the sliding toggle should be gray. 4. If you want to hit “pause” on Google logging your activity on ALL the Google apps and services you use, slide all the switches on this page to the left. Read the important information for each item and select PAUSE to complete each step. Mission accomplished! Google won’t be saving your search data anymore. Back to top What happens when you delete and disable your Google search historyIt’s important to understand the consequences of clearing your Google search history. By default, Google personalizes your search results based on your search activity. So if you search for recipes and click on links from allrecipes.com more frequently than all other websites, then Google will rank allrecipes.com higher up on the search results page every time you look up a recipe. If you delete and disable your Google search history, then your returning search results will be broader and less specific to you. So allrecipes.com won’t necessarily show up at the top of the results, even though it’s your favorite site. Back to top Deleting and disabling your history does NOT make you invisible to GoogleIf you delete and disable your search history, you are not invisible to Google—especially if you maintain an account for using various Google apps and services, such as Gmail and YouTube. The reality is that it’s pretty much impossible to be invisible to Google. But you can be prudent. Start by eliminating all Google apps and services from your daily web use. And use search engines that don’t track your search activity, such as DuckDuckGo, Ixquick, and Startpage. Back to top Do more to protect your internet privacyDeleting your Google search history is a great first step. Now if you REALLY want to step up your internet privacy game, here are more steps you can take:
Back to top Read more: Find out how to unblock Google in countries where it’s censored FAQ: About Google search historyIf you delete your search history from your browser only, it may still be stored on your Google Account. Delete your search history and activity from other Google services from your Web & App Activity page. While Google doesn’t provide a clear answer on what “Used Search” means, here are some popular hypotheses: Google accounts created after June 2020 automatically clear web and app searches after 18 months. For accounts created before then, Google retains Web & Activity data indefinitely by default; in theory, Google would have your search history from when you first opened your Google account. However, turning on the auto-delete option from your Web & App Activity page will instruct Google to automatically delete your activity after three months or 18 months. Locally stored search history on your browser is kept for: Apart from you and Google itself, your Google search history might be visible to anyone using your device. Using “incognito mode” or “private browsing” would prevent your searches from being saved to your device. Because Google is encrypted, your ISP cannot see your searches, but it can see the domains you’re visiting. Using a VPN will prevent the latter. It is also good practice to periodically delete your locally stored browser history and change Web & App Activity settings in your Google account to delete your search history after a short period. |