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FEBRUARY 21, 2012 | BY EVA GALPERIN

How to Remove Your Google Search History

Before Google's New Privacy Policy Takes Effect
[UPDATE 2/22/2012] It is important to 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. More
information at the end of this post.

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On March 1st, Google will implement its new, unified privacy policy, which will affect data Google has
collected on you prior to March 1st as well as data it collects on you in the future. Until now, your Google
Web History (your Google searches and sites visited) was cordoned off from Google's other products.
This protection was especially important because search data can reveal particularly sensitive
information about you, including facts about your location, interests, age, sexual orientation, religion,
health concerns, and more. If you want to keep Google from combining your Web History with the data
they have gathered about you in their other products, such as YouTube or Google Plus, you may want to

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remove all items from your Web History and stop your Web History from being recorded in the future.
Here's how you can do that:

EFF is leading the fight against the NSA's

illegal mass surveillance program. Learn
more about what the program is, how it
works, and what you can do.

1. Sign into your Google account.

Follow EFF
Oakland now has a privacy
policy for its new surveillance
center. @Matt_Cagle of
ACLUNC explains how it
happened: https://eff.org/r.665r
JUN 10 @ 5:41PM

Judges in the notorious Eastern

District of Texas just imposed
new, unfair requirements on
patent defendants.
JUN 10 @ 3:41PM

Jordanian organization @7iber is

working to preserve free speech
online https://eff.org/r.8j9f
JUN 10 @ 11:47AM

2. Go to https://www.google.com/history
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3. Click "remove all Web History."

Trolling Effects
Ways To Help

4. Click "ok."

How to Remove Your Google Search History Before Google's New Privacy Policy Takes Eect | Electronic Frontier F...

Note that removing your Web History also pauses it. Web History will remain off until you enable it again.
[UPDATE 2/22/2012]: 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 want to do more to reduce the records Google keeps, the advice
in EFF's Six Tips to Protect Your Search Privacy white paper remains relevant.
If you have several Google accounts, you will need to do this for each of them.
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