New Google policy starts March 1st

raedy4funn45's Avatar
Just a heads up... check the link below to see what Google knows about YOU! Google.com/history

You've probably heard that starting March 1, Google is going to unify all your privacy data from your various accounts, such as Gmail, YouTube and Web searches. What that means, in part, is that your past Web searches could become part of a big pot of information that's out there for Google to use to establish better profiles of its users for advertisers.

Don't want that? It's easy to clear your Google Web search history, but you'll need to do it with haste. Starting Thursday, the privacy policy goes into effect, although it's under fire, both in the U.S. and abroad. Despite the concerns, Google has said that the changes will not bring any new or additional data collection, and that most of its product-specific policies already allow information to be shared across product lines when users sign into their Google accounts.

Still, it doesn't hurt to wipe some things off your personal data map, including your searches. To get started, first, go to:Google.com/history. There, you will log in, using your Google sign-in.

Once you're logged in, you may be surprised by what you see -- I know I was. I found a history of all my searches, dating back to April 2007. My search history then showed I was doing research on various Palm products for myself (I went on to buy the Treo and still think of it fondly to this day, but don't necessarily want that info used in some weird way):
got2bfun's Avatar
Hmm interesting. So will this keep tracking your history even after you delete it?
Maxx's Avatar
  • Maxx
  • 02-29-2012, 09:30 AM
I went to the history link and it says my search history is empty. Hummm seems fishy now as I search various things almost daily. Thanks for the link, may have to start using a different search engine.
levi tab's Avatar
I went to the history link and it says my search history is empty. Hummm seems fishy now as I search various things almost daily. Thanks for the link, may have to start using a different search engine. Originally Posted by Maxx
When you initially signed onto gmail account, you may have checked off the Web History box and that's why you have no history. I found my personal account to be empty and found an old hobby account with web history and just cleaned it out. When I cleaned out the account, it said that my history would be set to pause.

raedy4funn45, thanks for the thread
hotdogs's Avatar
Did it removed all thank you raedy
Precious_b's Avatar
Can't find anything myself.
It says "Your web history is limited to searches."
But can't find a way to expand into the past.
Don't know if not kept or what.
Chuck12's Avatar
I went to the history link and it says my search history is empty. Originally Posted by Maxx
Mine is the same on my personal account and hobby account. It could be what Levi Tab mentions or it could also means you are not "signed in" when you are doing a search.

I log out from my email after i check it. So if i go to google it does not have me signed in. I suppose that makes it difficult to track who is doing the search.
Maxx's Avatar
  • Maxx
  • 02-29-2012, 02:13 PM
Mine is the same on my personal account and hobby account. It could be what Levi Tab mentions or it could also means you are not "signed in" when you are doing a search.

I log out from my email after i check it. So if i go to google it does not have me signed in. I suppose that makes it difficult to track who is doing the search. Originally Posted by Chuck12
>Chuck, it had me sign in when I went to the link to check, and I'm usually signed in when I search. Oh Well!

Just a thought from my cranial lobes -
I don't know but all this privacy crap is driving me nuts. The drones are gonna start flying so .... I guess when you click on a porn site they'll all convene over your house with red lights flashing.

kinda like the traffic cams, they're all and good for checking traffic and accidents and I'm sure they have some good, like, the other day when that shooting took place on 410, the police report - "we have video of the incident as it occured and have pictures of the shooters vehicle". Obviously the traffic cam was in the right place. That's good but what else are they going to video?

Guess I'm paranoid, 1984, Minority Report here we come.

Opps, didn't mean to get off subject.
Maxx's Avatar
  • Maxx
  • 02-29-2012, 03:35 PM
FYI - Found out you can disable your search history if you go to the arrow next to your email name and click privacy, sign in and scroll down to the search history and disable it. Mine was disabled, hence no history to view. Just thought I'd pass it along.
darter's Avatar
Sorry, but I'm not much of a techie, so I'm gonna ask for some help. Mine comes up with the following:
Web History has not been enabled by the administrator of the domain @xxxxxxxxxx.org.



Now the email listed is my work e-mail address. All of my others are through yahoo. should I check those as well? If so do I just click on the sign into another account link that comes up as well? Thanks in advance for any help!
If you dont have a gmail account does this apply at all?
Holy shit... had no idea such search details were saved and from so far back..... it even said how long you visited a page.... couldn't delete that shit fast enough.
Seems once you delete your history it puts your account on "pause".... read into that... it will remain on pause and no history saved until you enable it again.

Thanks Raedy4 for this topic... kept telling myself to look into all this shit but never took the time... glad I did.