Keeping Your Search History Secret

Dennis Snider

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Many Internet users have entirely legitimate reasons for wanting to keep their search histories private, but up until now the only way to do this on Google search or YouTube was to employ the incognito mode. Anyone not using this mode can find details of all searches and history on Google and YouTube at activity.google.com, meaning anyone who gets hold of a device on which your login is still active can view your search, watch, and query history. However, if you choose to enable verification then anyone wanting to look at your activity history (including yourself, obviously) will need your Google account password before it can be viewed.

In order to activate this facility, visit activity.google.com, login and select the “Manage My Activity verification” link. You will see a pop-up window with a button marked “Require extra verification”. If you select this and save it, you will then be required to input your password again as confirmation of authorization, and from then on you will always have to enter your Google password to view your history.

Obviously simple password protection isn’t the highest available level of security; if you are trying to conceal your history from someone who shares your account or has gained access to your password for some other reason, they can easily get round your protection. If you’re seeking to ensure that your history is completely invulnerable to prying eyes, you could consider either automatically or manually deleting all your activities. By visiting the My Google Activity page and selecting Web & App Activity > Auto-delete you can set Google to auto delete all history and activity logs after 3, 18, or 36 months, or, on the same page, you could set Google to never save your history; alternative, you can opt to manually delete items you don’t want to be seen.