Posted on 05/13/2015 1:18:43 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Google probably knows more about you than your mother, your partner, your boss... but chances are that you have no idea of just how much it knows.
Fortunately, there's an easy way to open your eyes to the scale of just what the world's most popular search engine knows about you, your interests and your peccadillos.
You may find yourself squirming when you realise Google never forgets what you've been typing into its search engine over the years, but, at least afterwards, you'll be able to do something about it.
First things first, take a deep breath and visit: https://history.google.com/history/
Chances are you will see one of two things.
The first possibility is that you might see what I saw when I tried it — a screen telling me that I had disabled web history and had specifically forbidden Google from collecting my search results.
That was a relief, I can tell you.
But what you're more likely to see is something like this:
In the case of the anonymous guinea pig who graciously allowed me to screen capture their web searching history, I would have been able to trawl back through over five years worth of web searches, learning about their medical complaints, old school friends they were curious about/stalking, and perhaps even their taste in porn.
(Excerpt) Read more at intego.com ...
I’m a translator, so my web searches depend on what I’m translating...which can be anything from a homicide report to something on money laundering to a financial analysis of some Latin American hell-hole leftist dictatorship. In several languages...So who knows what Google does with my stats?
In one month Obama will get his FCC to take over the Internet:
Obama and the FCC will shut down Drudge and freerepublic, and the Internet. I can’t believe even on this site people don’t seem to know or care what Obama is going to do to the Internet:
“FCC Commissioner: Feds May Come for Drudge [Isaiah 29]”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3286140/posts
“(Soros strikes again!)FCC Cites Soros-Funded Marxist Group 46 Times in Regs (internet takeover) “
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3267247/posts
Good to know.
Thanks
Does this track your searches if you are not logged into your google account?
I use Ixquick. No ip tracking, no cookies. Need to get rid of my second email which is gmail. Spy agency for advertisers! Just before that big East Coast storm, I gmailed a friend in Nj about getting a home generator. 5 minutes later I went to a news site to read a story. The whole right side of the page was adverts for home generators! Screw that!
This is all IF you sign in to Google routinely when doing your searching. There’s no reason you need to do that. You can use Google search without logging in to Google.
“Does this track your searches if you are not logged into your google account?”
Curious, as well. I don’t have a google account and my browser deletes cookies each session.
Does it track by IP? Computer?
No. It uses cookies on your various devices. It works even if you don't have a Google account. But to see what they have on you, you need to have a Google account to access the data, turn off the collection, delete it, etc. You can't win with them.
Do I believe they really, really delete this data, or are they just telling me they deleted it and stopped tracking me? Not one iota farther than I can throw their building. This is one of those things you have to take on "Faith" they are doing what they say they are doing. You cannot check whether they didi it or not. All you get to see is what Google is willing to show you.
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I dumped all that a few years back. If corps can track your usage/URL’s....so can big broth-a.
Many satisfied years with duckduckgo...
“I never, ever signed up for a Google account, though I do use Google Maps.”
Google has gone to a new format for maps and completely hosed it up, IMO.
Haven’t used Google in years!
Ixquick is “the world’s most private search engine.”
How private? Check it out at https://www.ixquick.com/eng/protect-privacy.html.
Full disclosure: I am in no way associated with Ixquick.
If they try that they would have a massive First Amendment fight on their hands. That would be a direct violation of the very essence of the First Amendment itself—and the Supreme Court would rule against the Obama Administration essentially 9-0.
I noticed that too, a few weeks ago.
I use startpage same company. I haven’t figured out the difference between them if any.
I have never signed into Google to do a search yet they had a continuous record of my searches. . . because I also have a secondary Google G-mail account. So you have to know that constitutes "signing into Google!" Or, you now have been using YouTube and they required you to "sign in to YouTube" at some time in the past to continue to use it. Voilà, you are signed in to Google automatically every time you use YouTube in a browser. . . and you are being tracked. They are nefarious in the ways you signing without knowing it.
I have a gmail account too. I sign in to it if I need to, and sign out of it when I’m done. I’m never signed in to it when I do a search. Google is my primary search engine.
I just checked my search history.
“Your search history is currently empty.”
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