How to make Google forget your most embarrassing searches

[Flash]

How to make Google forget your most embarrassing searches

July 6, 2016

Andrea Peterson
Sydney Morning Herald

Google probably knows you better than your closest friends and family. With every search you make or YouTube video you watch, the search giant is quietly collecting information for a personalised profile it uses to serve you targeted ads. But a new tool called My Activity makes it easier than ever to see what information that Google is stockpiling about you - and delete things you'd rather it forget. Here's what you need to know about this new tool and how it can help you manage your privacy.

So what exactly is My Activity?

It's basically a timeline that shows you what Google has saved about your online activities going back as far as Google has been tracking them. You can find it by going here. (Note: You'll probably be prompted to re-enter your password as a security measure.) Once you've made it in, there should be a big chronological list of things you've done using Google's services - the searches you've made, videos you've watched on YouTube, and so on (assuming you haven't already used Google's privacy controls to block the collection of certain information, of course).

You can even search through the data trove to look up a specific record or activity Google has saved -- like maybe the time you searched for a home remedy for plantar warts -- or filter the timeline by date or type of activity.

And you said I could delete things?

Yup! If you don't want Google remembering that plantar warts search or when you binged watched videos of a cat in a shark costume riding a Roomba, it's pretty simple to erase. First, you need to find the record you want to delete, which is made easy with the search bar at the top of the page. Once you've found the shameful bit of your online past in the timeline, you can open a little menu by clicking on the three vertical dots on the right end of the record. Select the delete option on that menu, and voila - Google will forget it!

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[pp4mnklinux]

MORNING:

This questions has got easy solutions BUT..... it depends on your chrome configuration, so no body answered it because there are as much solutions as configurations your browser can have.

Iḿ not going to give you all the solutions, because there are a lot as I said, BUT the UNIVERSAL SOLUTION is install an extension:

QUICK AND CLEAN

then configure it and .... thats all.

[gcmartin]

Thanks Flash. I have, in the past, downloaded my activity. I might as well know as much about me as possible. I'm getting old'er.