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By now most people are aware that Google keeps track of everything you do on the Internet. Those records are then sold to advertisers and government agencies for profit, that’s their business model. Yup, it’s kinda creepy.
The online giant knows every movie you searched for the starring actors, every restaurant you’d looked into for visiting, and every car that you’ve thought of purchasing. It also knows more personal details, like what medical conditions you are ailing from, which coworkers you’ve tried finding information on, and where you’re thinking about taking your next trip.
Google knows all of these things from your many internet searches. It’s understandable if you consider this is a terrible privacy risk because it is.
But, if you have a Gmail account, you can erase all your Google searches from their search engines.
Okie Dokie, Artichokie, let’s get started:
‘My Activity’ is Google’s account settings tool. Here you will see all of your search activity across multiple platforms. This is also where you can edit or delete the personal information that you find.
To find My Activity, head to Google’s home page and log in to your Gmail account.
- Tap the circle in the upper corner with your initial inside and a menu will open
- Then click My Account.
- Click on the option called: My Activity.
- Then, you’ll be asked to confirm your account password.
How to erase your Google search history
The process of erasing your Google search history is actually quite simple. Once inside My Activity, use these steps to delete your entire search history:
- On the left side of your My Activity page, you will see a menu of actions.
- Tap Delete activity by.
This will bring up a selection box where you choose a delete date and product.
- Under Delete by date in the selection box, change Today .. to All Time. This will erase every Google search under your account from its archive. There is also an option to select a date range to delete searches from, but it’s easier and more secure to delete them all.
- In the drop down menu, change All Products .. to Search. This means you’ll only be deleting your search history. There are more options to choose from such as All Products, Ads, Chrome, Maps, Video Search and YouTube. If you’re only looking to erase your Google search history, select Search.
- Tap Delete – A pop-up will appear, warning you that your activity can make Google services more useful to you, like better commute options in Maps and quicker results in Search. (Do you really want Google to keep track of you daily driving routines? I didn’t think so.)
- Click OK – Another pop-up will appear asking you to confirm that you want to delete your Search activity from all time and warns you these items will be permanently deleted from your Google Account.
- Tap Delete
That’s all there is to it. Your Google search history should now be clear.
Be aware that this just deletes you search history for the past, any new searches will be recorded all over again. We recommend you follow this procedure every few months so future searches are not archived like the ones that you just deleted.
Be Safe – Backup Your Data Regularly!
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