If you are tired of targetted advertising following your every move online, you’ll be pleased to know that you can erase your Google search history.
The power of Google lies in the knowledge the search engine knows about you from analysing your search history and scanning your Gmail.
Google probably knows more about you than even you do because you have forgotten that search you carried out years ago looking for socks in your favorite colour.
What Google knows about you
Just think what information Google stores about you.
- Your name, where you live, gender and age
- Where you work, what job you do and bank card information
- Where you shop, your online searches and your trips on holiday
- Your friends and business contacts
And that’s just the start.
But you can opt out by accessing Google’s My Activity Tool.
Go to Google’s Home page, log in then tap your avatar in the top right corner and click the blue button to open your account.
Next, find the My Activity block and click through to Go To My Activity
To erase your search history, click ‘Delete Activity By’, select a date and search option and delete away.
Deleting your online history
Chrome stores search histories for around three months and some extensions for at least six months or more, so make sure you return every now and again for a fresh clean up.
To opt out of that creepy advertising that follows you around the web, go to ‘Other Google Activity’ below the ‘Delete Activity By’ link and click through. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on ‘Manage Ad Settings’.
This brings up an Ad Choices screen with an ‘Opt Out Of All’ button at the foot of the table.
Check each box to opt out of all or some of the services, then click ‘Opt Out Of All’ to clear the screen.
This stops more than 2 million web sites and at least 100 online ad networks pushing content based on search preferences to your Chrome browser.
But be warned – deleting your search history and advertising preferences will not stop Google feeding you ads as the tip only stops the personalised information based on your profile choices.