March 1st is only a week away and that means Google’s new privacy policy will officially go into effect in a week. This will mean that Google will start combining all your personal data from all Google services (Gmail, YouTube, Search, etc) into one profile of you to make it easier to get to know you better and sell that data to advertisers.
Many people have sensitive data in their search history, data that you really don’t want combined. The Electronic Frontier Foundation says that this sensitive data can reveal information about your location, sexual orientation, age, interests, religion, health concerns, your politics, etc. The data can also be misconstrued – just because you search for something doesn’t necessarily mean you approve of or enjoy what you’re searching.
If you’re one of those people who still keeps a Google account or had an account with Google, make sure you delete all your searches before next week. You first need to sign into your Google account, then go to http://www.google.com/history (alternatively, you can choose Account Settings from the pull-down menu in the upper-right corner of a Google product such as Gmail, Google+, or Google.com. From the Account Settings page, scroll down to the Services header and click on the “Go to web history” link).
Click on the button that says “Remove all Web History”, then click OK to confirm. Done. But make sure to always clear your browser “cookies” before closing it – you don’t want the Google cookie monster to eat up all your personal information. I would also recommend using an anti-tracking browser add-on tool to ward off Google’s tracking devices from spying on you.
For an illustration on how to do this, click here and here
UPDATE
“Note that disabling Web History in your Google account will not prevent Google from gathering and storing this information and using it for internal purposes. It also does not change the fact that any information gathered and stored by Google could be sought by law enforcement. With Web History enabled, Google will keep these records indefinitely; with it disabled, they will be partially anonymized after 18 months, and certain kinds of uses, including sending you customized search results, will be prevented.
If you have several Google accounts, you will need to do this for each of them.”
For more information, please visit The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) website – click here
