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Your search history is a record of the web pages you have searched for and visited using Google Search. This history is saved in your Google account and can be viewed on the “Search History” page of your Google account settings.
Your search history can be helpful for several reasons. For example, it can help you quickly access web pages that you have previously searched for, and it can help you discover new information related to your previous searches.
But if you’re logged into your Google account, either via Chrome or your mobile device, it means your online activity is leaving a footprint that Google and other websites can use to collect data about you and target you with ads or other Google products. Naturally, not everyone is comfortable with that idea.
Whatever your reason is for wanting to delete your Google search history, you are well within your right to privacy. This guide will cover how to delete your Google search history, delete all your Google account activity, and prevent Google from collecting such data in the future.
Google saves your search history to personalize your search experience and improve the quality of its search results.
By understanding your search data and the types of web pages you have visited, Google can tailor its search results and ads to be more relevant and useful to you. For example, if you frequently search for information on a particular topic, Google may suggest relevant keywords when you perform future searches.
In addition to personalizing your search experience, Google uses your search history to improve the quality of its search results for all users. By analyzing search queries and the web pages that users visit, Google can better understand the intent behind different search queries and improve its algorithms to provide more relevant and useful results for those queries.
You may sometimes want to manually delete your search history, which we’ll explore now. You can also set your search data to auto-delete, which I’ll show you how to do afterward.
Deleting your Google history will not affect the search results you see. Google’s algorithms will still determine the most relevant and useful results for your search queries.
Follow these simple steps to delete your Google history on any web browser, including on mobile devices:
1. Make sure you are signed in to your Google account. To access your Google account settings, click on your Profile Picture in the upper right corner of the Google homepage.
2. Click Manage your Google Account.
3. On the left-hand side of the page, click on the Data & privacy tab.
4. Scroll down to the History settings section and click the My Activity button.
5. On the My Activity page, scroll down to see a list of your recent activity on Google services, including your search history. Click the X button to delete specific items from your Google history.
6. Click Delete.
7. To delete your entire search history, click the Delete activity by option in the left-hand menu.
8. Select All time from the drop-down menu.
9. Click Next.
Note: By default, all services are selected. However, you can unselect the services whose history you don’t wish to delete by unchecking them.
10. Preview and click Delete.
Here’s step-by-step how to delete Google search history on your Android device:
1. Open the Google app on your Android device.
2. Tap on your profile picture in the upper-right corner of the screen to open the menu.
3. Tap on “Your data in the Google app” or “Your data in Search.”
4. Scroll down and select “Manage your Search history.”
5. Find and tap the drop-down menu labeled “Delete.”
6. Choose the time range for which you’d like to delete your search history.
7. If you’re prompted, confirm the deletion.
For iPhone users, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to delete your Google search history:
1. Open the Google app on your iPhone.
2. Tap on your profile picture in the upper-right corner of the screen to open the menu.
3. Tap on “Settings.”
4. Tap on “Your data in the Google app.”
5. Tap on “Web & App Activity.”
6. Tap on the three vertical dots in the top right corner of the screen.
7. Tap on “Delete activity by.”
8. Choose the time range for which you want to delete your search history.
9. Tap on the red “Delete” button to confirm.
Here is how to delete Google search history in your Google Chrome app:
1. Open Google Chrome on your computer.
2. Click on your profile picture in the upper-right corner of the window to open the menu.
3. Click on “History.”
4. On the left side of the page, you will see a list of options for filtering your history. You can view and delete specific items from your history using these options.
5. To delete specific items from your browsing history, check the boxes next to the items you want to delete and click the “Remove selected items” button.
6. To delete your entire Google search history, tap “Clear browsing data” at the top of the page.
7. A pop-up window will appear. Choose the time range for which you want to delete your history.
8. Make sure that the “Browsing history” option is selected, along with any other types of data you’d like to delete, and then click on the “Clear data” button.
To stop Google from saving your search history going forward, you can turn off the Web & App Activity option in the “Activity and timeline” section of your Google account settings. When this setting is turned off, your Google search history and other activity will not be saved in the first place.
Unfortunately, using Google’s services in any capacity will still allow Google to track your usage. So, despite deleting or disabling your Google search history and activity, Google will still use your anonymized search data and data from the various Google apps. This is especially relevant if you use an Android phone.
That said, if your online searches are your primary privacy concern, there’s a way to prevent them from being tracked: Instead of using Google Search, you can use a private search engine that will not track your searches, like DuckDuckGo.
Sometimes, it’s not enough to delete and disable your search activity. Everything you do online is tracked, so you may want to delete the rest of your activity data. Here’s how to delete all of your Google activity:
1. Go to your Google Controls and sign in to your Google Account if necessary. You will see a list of different types of activity that Google tracks. To delete all of your activity history, you will need to take care of them one at a time.
To turn off an activity control, click its Turn off button – I’m switching off Web & App Activity.
2. Click Turn off and delete activity.
3. At this point, activity tracking will be turned off for that category, but you’ll need to click a few more times to delete the existing data. Click Next on the pop-up window.
4. Review the list of data and ensure Select All is checked. Then, click Next when you’re ready to delete the selected data.
5. Finally, confirm the deletion by clicking Delete.
6. Repeat this process for each activity type you want to disable and delete.
7. At the bottom are Personalized ads, which you may want to disable as well. To do so, click My Ad Center.
8. On the next page, click where it says Personalized ads On.
9. Click Turn off.
10. Select Got it.
Your Google data and browsing history are only visible when you’re signed in to your Google account. This means other individuals can only see your Google activity if you give them access to your account. It could happen accidentally, like if you stay logged in on a shared or public device, so make sure you sign out of your account in those circumstances. And, of course, don’t share your login information with anyone you don’t fully trust.
However, some third parties that don’t have access to your Google account can still track parts of your online activity. For example, the websites you visit use cookies to understand their visitors better and enhance site functionality. So even though your Google search history isn’t available to those websites, they can collect data on their visitors and piece together parts of their online activity.
There’s another important party that has even greater access to your search history and internet activity—your internet service provider (ISP). Your ISP collects information on all your internet use and can see what kinds of activities you’re engaged in, whether it’s browsing, streaming videos, or using social media.
Many users aren’t comfortable with their ISPs knowing what they’re doing online. Fortunately, there’s a simple solution. The best and most reliable way to stop your ISP from spying on you is to use a VPN.
A VPN, or virtual private network, is a service that encrypts your internet connection and hides your IP address to protect your online privacy and security. When you use a VPN, your internet traffic is routed through a secure server in a country of your choice. This process serves several purposes:
As you can see, using a VPN is practical to engage with much of the online world. I recommend one of the VPNs below, as these VPNs offer the best performance while protecting your personal data.
ExpressVPN uses strong encryption protocols to protect your data and online activities from being intercepted by third parties. With a large network of servers in over 105 countries, connection speeds are unrivaled. It also has a no-log policy, which means it does not keep any logs of your online activities. Plus, it has the strongest unblocking capabilities of any VPN, which is perfect for accessing streaming services and censored content.
Private Internet Access (PIA) uses industry-standard encryption and has a strict no-log policy, so it doesn’t track your online activities. A large server network in 91 countries means you can choose the one closest to you for the best performance. PIA allows you to connect up to 10 devices simultaneously, while most VPNs allow only 5–7, making PIA a good choice for large households.
CyberGhost VPN has servers in 100 countries and offers many features, including robust encryption and a no-logs policy to protect your data and privacy. It also has a user-friendly interface and offers dedicated streaming, torrenting, and gaming servers.
If you prefer a personalized search experience and you like having records of your research, it’s perfectly fine to leave your Google search history alone. But naturally, many users aren’t comfortable with Google having so much information about their activities.
Of course, it’s possible to delete your Google search history using the methods discussed in this article. You can also delete your activity across all other Google services. And if you go that far, you’ll probably want to stop your search history and activity from being saved in the first place. Remember that Google may still collect anonymized usage data from you to improve its services.
Also, remember that your ISP and other websites can track your activity even if you stop Google from associating your activity with your account. For maximum privacy, install a top-quality VPN like ExpressVPN on all your devices.
Yes, you can delete specific search queries. In the "My Activity" section of your Google Account, you can search for or scroll through your activity to find specific queries. Click on the three dots next to the query you want to delete and select "Delete."
Deleting your search history removes the data from your Google Account, but it does not necessarily remove all traces of it from Google's servers. Google may retain certain data for auditing, security, and other operational purposes as outlined in their privacy policy.
Yes, you can set up automatic deletion of your Google search history. In your Google Account's "My Activity" section, you can select "Auto-delete" and choose a time frame (3 months, 18 months, or 36 months) for automatically deleting your older activity.
To ensure your future searches are not saved, you can turn off Web & App Activity. Go to your Google Account, navigate to Data & Privacy, and find the Web & App Activity section. Toggle off the switch to prevent Google from saving your searches and activity.
Deleting your Google search history may impact the personalization of other Google services. For example, YouTube recommendations or Google Assistant responses may become less tailored to your preferences. However, it will not affect the core functionality of these services.
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