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How to Delete Your Google Search History Before It's Too Late

By Admin on February 26, 2012 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Google's new privacy policy is set to take effect March 1. That means time is ticking for Google users to "delete" their search histories before that data is automatically shared across all of Google's platforms.

Under Google's new policy, user data from all Google-owned sites and products -- including YouTube, Gmail, Google+, Blogger, and Google's search engine -- will be consolidated and shared across those sites.

For example, a Google user's search-engine queries will be used to determine what advertisements appear when a user accesses Gmail. The data will also be used to create customized search results.

The policy change will give Google access to data that some users may consider personal, such as location, age, and interests. Search terms and Internet activity can also reveal a user's religion, health issues, and sexual orientation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation points out.

But there is a way to "delete" a user's Google web history, according to the EFF. If a user's web history is removed before March 1, that data will not be shared as part of Google's new privacy policy.

Here's how to "delete" your Google web history, according to the EFF:

This must be done to all Google accounts for which a user doesn't want her information shared.

Still, the process doesn't fully "delete" a user's web history. Rather, if a user chooses to "remove" her web history, Google will only use that data for internal purposes; it will not be shared with advertisers or across other Google sites as part of the new Google privacy policy, the EFF says.

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