Google privacy changes March 1: How to clear your search history, account information

Hayley Tsukayama
Washington Post
March 1, 2012

The first and easiest way to use Google but keep the company from collecting information on you is to use the company’s services without signing in to your account. YouTube, Search and Maps don’t require users to be logged in to use the services, though even signed-out users will still see ads based on their search terms, etc.

If you, like many people, are constantly signed in to your Gmail account throughout the day, things get a little more complicated.

Users can turn off the setting that allows Google to record their search history. To get to this menu, go to www.google.com/history or head to the “Account Settings” menu from the top navigation bar you see when signed in to your Google account. Scroll down to the “Services” section. From here, you can pause, edit or remove all Web History. On some accounts, you can also go to the “Products” section of your account settings and click the “Edit” link next to “Your Products.”

Google will still keep some of your Web history information regardless of your settings, but the results won’t be used to customize your search results. According to Google, the company “also maintains a separate logs system for auditing purposes and to help us improve the quality of our services for users.” Google keeps the information to “audit our ads systems, understand which features are most popular to users, improve the quality of our search results, and help us combat vulnerabilities such as denial of service attacks.”

Read full article and get more info on how to deal with Google services here

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37 Responses to “Google privacy changes March 1: How to clear your search history, account information”

  1. If you are too stupid to set up a remote ssh server and a socks proxy, it is your own fault. Stay off the Internet, you’re hogging up mommy’s bandwidth watching porn at 3am.

  2. OK, so who is aware of how much money Alex Jones makes from Google Ads? Does that make AJ just as evil? Jones is milking you.

  3. FLOOD GOOGLE WITH SPAM MAILS!!!

  4. Google is reading my thoughts again.
    The voices in my head don’t like them.

  5. One other simple way is to never use anything you have to log in to. I don’t use any services anymore where you have to log in. Of course that means that there are some YouTube videos I cannot such, such as any R rated movie that someone might post, but if I cannot watch it on YouTube, I can always get it on Netflix.

    • “I don’t use any services anymore where you have to log in”

      “if I cannot watch it on YouTube, I can always get it on Netflix.”

      A paradox is it not? Are you the only Netflix user who doesn’t have to LOG IN to use their service?

      dipshit…

  6. Thx for the tip infowars.
    Pretty hard to find without knowing it does exist.

    Here are some links I personaly use for privacy:

    —-https://startpage.com/
    A good alternative to google search engine.

    ——–https://www.fastmail.fm/
    A good alternative to gmail (mail only, no chat).

    ——–http://www.afternet.org/chat
    Not really an alternative to gTalk (chat), it’s IRC, but hey, if you really need to talk to some1, it’s a good stuff.

    • for mac users:

      ——http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

      Probably the most important program to have if you like to download stuffs…

  7. I give two shits. I’ll do what I do anyways. I don’t care who see’s. I’ll be sure to take my time when I masturbate, wipe my butt, clean the toilet etc.. The less afraid we are, the less they win. Fear is their ally. So whatever you gotta do, just do it. And let em see you do it.

    • Unless you’re working undercover.

  8. satellites and space techno spy on everyone, everywhere, anytime those who own them chooses to do so! scanners, vans with scanners, etc. We do not have privacy anymore.

  9. hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil, have no damn fun.

  10. them white boys can’t read smoke singnals or mirror morris code now can they, or the talking drum.

  11. “The first and easiest way to use Google but keep the company from collecting information on you is to use the company’s services without signing in to your account. YouTube, Search and Maps don’t require users to be logged in to use the services, though even signed-out users will still see ads based on their search terms, etc.”

    Note!

    Whether you are signed in to Google or not and visit any of their services Google will still collect data about you, they associate any IP address you have ever used when signing in to your account.

    Meaning they only need to log all accesses to any of their servers from any web site that has a sub link to them, like if a site has a “google-analytics” link calling their “ga.js”.

    As I say any sub link connecting to any of their server systems is logged, your IP – your “user-agent” info (browser etc) – OS – the site where it was called from (referral header).

    All this info is more than enough when combined to confirm it is the same user (whether they have a Google account or not) and it is all logged within the server logs databases.

    In fact some browser make calls to Google servers each time you visit a site, to check for “phishing” sites, amongst other things, Firefox does this – part of its “safebrowsing” code, I had to remove the info from within the config of Firefox to prevent these calls.
    (I’ll be making a post on my site about this later, after I post this I guess.)

    Even having a built-in search engine feature within your browser can send google information too.

    Google has so many ways to track a User across the internet, they have been using a redundancy system where they use so many methods to ensure they have at least one way of tracking a User, and from what I understand they’ve continually been adding methods to this redundancy system whether they can.

    Google is not the only site that’s been using many of these methods to track users, all apparently so they can deliver appropriate adverts to its users, they don’t need anywhere as much info as they have been retrieving.

    Apart from Google I know at least 2 other sites deploying these methods, if you really want to prevent your info (browsing habits etc.) from being collected it takes more than just a simple boycott of their services, you have to root out block much more than that!

    Ciao all.

  12. I dumped Google completely. I now use duckduckgo.com for searches and hushmail for email. Neither of which are as flashy as Google and Gmail, but I have tolerated being spied on for years – no more though. Also, check out Tor Project and setup a node if you have the bandwidth.

  13. First of all, google’s privacy policy was not changed for the better or worse, it was just CONSOLIDATED. All services now work under the same policy and not 500 different ones. Makes it easier for those (small businesses) that rely on google services.

    As for evilness…seriously? YOU ARE THE PRODUCT! NOT THE CUSTOMER!

    If you want to be 100% safe, sign out of your account and use the incognito mode of google chrome. I verified with a network traffic scanner – no information going anywhere where you didn’t want it.

    And if you want to be REALLY safe, use a virtual machine to do your super secret browsing from.

  14. I guess the “Do No Evil” motto did last long over at Google, eh?

  15. If you are using YouTube and need to upload video you HAVE to log in! No way around it. And if you are doing searches for videos in YouTube, how can you get around that?

  16. The unfortunate thing about Google is that someone like me who likes to use Craigslist has to use Google due to the fact that when I use my other email ISP’s, the mails don’t go through. Gmail is the only program that CL works with. F***ing Google b^^^ards

    • Yes, clearly it’s google’s fault that Craigslist only cooperates with Gmail (which, by the way, is horsecrap. I use hotmail with CL and it works just fine.)
      The idea that this was CL’s decision never occured to you, did it?

  17. Google also monitors your Yahoo email account!

    I was signing into the school Gmail account and Google pops up asking saying I was signed into my Ymail account (actually had my YAHOO email address there!), did I want to switch?

    WTH? And I wasn’t even signed into my Yahoo mail account!!

    • When the NWO wants to know where U are to come pick U up like in Nazi Germany’s past,then the’ll have a pretty good idea where to go and even when U will be home, and they may even be able to see U any time they wish sitting in front of that little 1984 style mini cam U have mounted like I do on top of your laptop screen!

  18. You know how to avoid Google creating a detailed database of all your searches? DONT USE GOOGLE IN ANY WAY!!! Dont use a Gmail account for your emails, dont use Google +, and of course dont use thier search engine!! Looking to block your location from websites? Use… TOR. Looking for a search engine that doesnt keep track of you and is in no way owned by any big brother organization? go to ecosia.com. Granted Echelon and Information Awareness still track us… sooo…. hmmm

    • Exactly. I use Ixquick which is the same as Startpage.com.

      • That’s what I use Startpage.com.

      • I just tried Ixquick and it was flagged as porn!

      • I use Ixquick as it claims to be the most private seach engine.

  19. Download Mozilla the add on Do Not Track Plus kinda works

  20. Go to startpage and stop using Google!

    • Ask.com is also a good search engine.

  21. You should delete your history and then delete your account and then use startpage . com

    Don’t trust those bastards. They keep all the info and it is fed to the beast computer in Alaska.

    • If you are at a business or school using Google Tools they block you from using Startpage.com

  22. I think you have seen the warnings, that even this article points out enough dangers that, you will realize it is not worth dealing/using google.

    Instead: startpage[dot]com for your search/startpage of your browser
    – and –
    gmx[dot]com for your email

    AND, remain forever vigilant, watch the services you are using for any hint of them gather data and working to do surveillance on you, track you, manipulate you … the best system is the “opt out system”, opt out of anything which even contains a hint of danger to you …

  23. even if you opt out of all this, they can still keep a track on any video you’ve commented and everything you’ve watched on youtube since both google and youtube are linked, i do need to log in to youtube to get access to my subscriptions to watch newest videos. I think their pricvacy change has more to do with videos, comments and likes on youtube rather than just google searches. With tracking all this on Youtube they can definetely paint a portrait of anyone and know exactly your state of mind.

  24. shit can windows! use linux and search with startpage! windows + google = fuck buddies!!

  25. To ogle: to stare at impertinently.

    Google’s job is to go ogle your privacy.

  26. fuck google
    fuck oni66a
    fuck jan 1/2 man

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