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Title: IMPORTANT STUFF: How to delete your Google Browsing History
Source:
Digital Journal
URL Source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/320137
Published: Mar 3, 2012
Author: JohnThomas Didymus
Post Date: 2012-03-03 10:22:17 by buckeroo
Keywords: None
Views: 4013
Comments: 5
With just a week to go before Google changes to its new privacy policy that allows it to gather, store and use personal information, users have a last chance to delete their Google Browsing History, along with any damning information therein.
Tech News Daily reports that once Google's new unified privacy policy takes effect all data already collected about you, including search queries, sites visited, age, gender and location will be gathered and assigned to your online identity represented by your Gmail and YouTube accounts. After the policy takes effect you are not allowed to opt out without abandoning Google altogether. But now before the policy takes effect, you have the option of deleting your Google Web History by modifying your settings so that Google is unable to associate data collected about you with your Gmail or YouTube accounts.
Tech News Daily reports that Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco that advocates for online privacy, says: "Search data can reveal particularly sensitive information about you, including facts about your location, interests, age, sexual orientation, religion, health concerns, and more."
EFF advises all Google users to delete their web history.
Meanwhile, Center for Digital Democracy has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, asking the Commission to sue Google to stop the policy change. Tech News Daily reports FTC can impose fines up to $16,000 per day for violation.
Daily Mail reports that deleting your browsing history before March 1 when Google's new privacy policy comes into effect will limit Google's ability to track and record your every move online. The process is simple. Follow the steps below:
1. Go to the google homepage and sign into your account.
2. Click the dropdown menu next to your name in the upper-right hand corner of your screen.
3. Click accounts settings
4. Find the "Services section"
5. Under "Services" there is a sub-section that reads "View, enable, disable web history." Click the link next to it that reads: "Go to Web History."
6. Click on "Remove all Web History"
When you click on "Remove all Web History," a message appears that says " Web History is Paused." What this means is that while Google will continue gathering and storing information about your web history it will make all data anonymous, that is, Google will not associate your Web History information with your online accounts and will therefore be unable to send you customized search results.
Google's ability to gather personalized information about you by assigning data to your Gmail and YouTube accounts will remain "Paused" till you click "Resume."
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Here is another article that contains more detail:
Defending your secrets from Google's prying eyes: The simple three-step solution that keeps your browsing history private~snip
Although disabling web history will not prevent Google from gathering and storing this information and using it for internal purposes, it does mean the Web giant will anonymise the data in 18 months.
It will also prevent it from certain kinds of uses, including sending you customised search results.
~snip
If you don't sign in, Google will track your searches via the computer's IP address. The only way to clear your personal history is by signing in. While it is not known exactly how Google would use your combined information, the policy has been widely criticised.
~snip
If you continue to use Google, don't use their email accounts. And use TOR but they will invariably ensnare you within: CAPTCHA!
Goodbye GOOGLE!
#2. To: All (#0)
#3. To: buckeroo (#0)
6. Click on "Remove all Web History"When you click on "Remove all Web History," a message appears that says " Web History is Paused."
I don't have that option. Mine says:
You can view and edit your Web History from any computer by signing in to your Google Account. Learn more.
Then I have two buttons, one that says, "No, Thanks" and another that says, "Turn Web History On".
So I guess mine wasn't turned on?
Screw it, I just deleted my whole account. I don't approve of what they are doing and want nothing more to do with them. A friend of mind turned me on to the Ixquick search engine and it works great plus they don't track or store the IP addresses of those who use it. Not that it matters because Google do the same thing with "Google Analytics," which, from my understanding, just about everyone involved in e-commerce uses to capture info about their customers, which Google gathers and stores for their own use.
#4. To: Fibr Dog (#3)
I don't have that option.
As the theme from Cheers used to say, you want to go to a place where everyone knows your name. That’s called the planet Earth under fascism.
Screw it, I just deleted my whole account.If you have an email account, You should not do that as some folks (that you regard as valuable) may want to contact you there. Check it from time to time BEFORE deletion so as to ensure a smooth transition into another email account.
#5. To: buckeroo (#0)
But now before the policy takes effect, you have the option of deleting your Google Web History by modifying your settings so that Google is unable to associate data collected about you with your Gmail or YouTube accounts.
Good piece but I doubt Google will honor this.
We've seen this already with Facebook. Users can try to turn off all this invasive stuff and Facebook pretends that they are complying but they just keep doing the same thing anyway. Google just got caught ignoring all the privacy settings for Apple's Safari browser (desktop Macs, iPod/iPhone/iPad). So we already know they are lying to us.
Google will be the same way with this new change.
Cut the cord. Dump Google. It's value and accuracy as a search engine really has become overrated and its growth has been fueled largely by being the default search engine for Firefox, Chrome, Android and Apple products.
Though I don't believe for one minute that Google will comply, I do agree with the EFF's advice for those who actually do have Google accounts. They should do these things just to lay a legal trap for Google for class-action lawsuits and official actions against Google.
Google has made a honeypot to trap us. We should do what we can to make a honeypot to trap Google instead.
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