How to Make Google Forget Your Most Embarrassing Searches

My Activity – A Timeline showing Google’s Stockpile of User

With each search one tends to make or YouTube video watched, Google tends to know you much better while the search giant quietly collects information for a personalized profile it seems to use in serving you targeted ads. However a new tool known as My Activity makes it stress-free than ever to see what information Google seems to be stockpiling regarding the user and delete thing which you would rather forget. Some insight has been provided to bring about an awareness regarding this new tool and how it could be helpful in managing your privacy.

`My Activity’ is basically a timeline which shows what Google has been saving regarding your online activities going back as far as Google has been tracking them which is found at myactivitygoolge.com. When you have arrive here, you will find a big chronological list of things done using Google’s service, the searches done, videos watched on YouTube etc. You could also search through the data trove to check up a specific record or activity which Google has save such as the time you searched for a particular information or filter the timeline by data or type of activity.

Easy to Erase Google’s collected data

If you do not prefer Google recalling your search or when you have indulged in watching video, it is easy to erase. At first you need to find the record intending to delete, which is made simple with the search bar towards the top of the page. Once you have located your online record in the timeline, you could open a little menu by clicking on the three vertical dots towards the right side of the record. Opt for delete choice on the menu and Google will forget it.

You could also delete the things in bulk by clicking on the three dot menu at the top of the timeline and select `delete activity by’ and choose a date range to delete on the next page. If desiring to have a complete blank slate, you could select the `All Time’ option. You could also stop Google’s data collection whenever you desire. In order to lock things down, you could go to myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols wherein you could tell Google to stop saving information regarding things like your searchers, YouTube watching habits and location history.

Google’s Privacy Checkup

If you are looking through your My Activity timeline and you tend to be a little suspicious, it would possibly be worth running through Google’s Privacy Checkup and this feature which can be located at myaccount.google.com/privacycheckup utilises a simple interface to assist in managing not only what data is saved by Google but also the information regarding the user could be public through the services like Google+.

The search giant tends to make its revenue from distributing targeting ads that is made easier by the collection of data which they have regarding the online activity of the user.That would mean limiting the data they save would possibly result in you viewing ads which tend to be less relevant to your choice. Moreover beyond ads, Google also uses the data to help in personalizing their products to the liking of the user. This could provide a more convenient online experience.