Like breaking up with past lovers, when deleting something from our browsing history, we all have that lingering feeling that it’s never really gone. Some may even suspect that multinational tech giants such as Google might have been keeping tabs on all the searches you’ve made — and they’re right. Unless a genie granted you an invisibility cloak for your deleted search items, they remain visible. Fortunately, that is reversible — here’s how:
It’s estimated that Google currently processes over 40,000 search queries every second on average, which translates to over 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. It begs this question: How does Google manage to keep tabs on such a jaw-dropping amount?
It’s not like Google is a superior being capable of seeing and hearing all. It’s only when you log into your Gmail or Google account that Google will be able to record it all — removed items included. See your very own search history by using the link: history.google.com/history. In that history page, Google even has its own specific audio page as well as meticulous records of every single place you’ve been to on the Internet.
You can even analyze the information with the handy “search my searches” tool. Image searches and watched YouTube videos are also recorded. Previous Google Maps searches can also be reviewed, and if you feel like it, you can download your entire history and browse through it in your spare time.
For those wishing to delete certain files or certain search records, the Independent advises you on exactly how to do it:
“To delete particular files, you can click the checkbox on the left and then move back to the top of the page and select ‘delete.’ To get rid of everything, you can press the ‘More’ button, select ‘Delete options’ and then ‘Advanced’ and click through. The easiest way to stop Google recording everything is to turn off the virtual assistant and never to use voice search. But that solution also gets at the central problem of much privacy and data use today – doing so cuts off one of the most useful things about having an Android phone or using Google search.”
Another method would be to head over to the top left of the screen where you’ll find a drop-down menu that includes the option “Activity Controls.” Select this and then switch off the slider marked “Web & App Activity.”
Keeping records might come in handy when you want to look back for something, but for those who enjoy their privacy, there are ways to prevent Google from going through your search history. For more information, please give us a call or send us an email. We are more than happy to help in any way we can.