How to delete your Google browsing history

I have a google account, but apparently my web history was never turned on. I am signed-up for a personal google channel, and for some reason there is a list of google music videos listed there that I'm pretty sure I posted here on babble in the What are you listening to threads. Not many just three or four videos and don't undertand why they are even there listed under my personal google channel. I appreciate the black box and Link Wray videos but didn't think they were important enough to store or bookmark there or whatever in hell happened. Apparently I have no idea of what in hell is going on in my dealings with Google most of the time.

I think so, F55, since you have to be signed in to follow the instructions. Although I don't get a "Delete Web History" option, just asking me if I want to start a web history. Is it possible that I've pre-empted this by following the advice of an earlier concerned citizen?

Never ever surf the net while logged into any Google account.   You're going to end up being tracked.  

I don't have a gmail account...or any web based e-mail accounts that I actively use any more.

..this is a link to "start page" the google search engine that does not track.

https://www.startpage.com/eng/protect-privacy.html

But this only happens when you're signed in?

I guess using Google Chrome is out now, too.

I have three different web browsers on my computer (Safari, Firefox, Chrome) and I only run Facebook on one of them, and I don't run anything else on it.  I find this routine is easy to follow and decreases the amount of spying facebook can do.

I am much more slack about google.  I'll definitely be deleting the history in my multiple google accounts, thanks for the info.

jas wrote:

 

But how can we be sure? I mean, if they're that interested in my browsing behaviour then how do I know they aren't tracking my movements in Chrome by IP or something?

Anyone?

I guess my worry is that if Google is moving towards less transparency in what data they collect and how they use it, then who's to say there isn't something built into Chrome that also collects data? Especially if you have a Google account. Eg: maybe you think you're signed out, but because you're in Chrome, there's some additional level in the software that still recognizes you. ?

By the way I learned about the Iron web browser on the decentralized, free software, privacy respecting social networking service Diaspora*

The number of Diaspora* users right now is small (about 300,000 world wide) but a project that I think is worth supporting.

Here is the list of Diaspora* pod servers.

Diaspora* is a federated social network of peer servers.   There is no central server that controls everything the way Facebook or Google+ does.

Quote:

How do you convince your friends to join and post?

I don't have any magic answer to that question.

I've maybe convinced about 10% of my FB friends to at least create accounts on Diaspora*

Anyway, in one of his recent speeches (I'll find it somewhere)  Cory Doctorow explained that moving away from data mining services is alot like trying to give up smoking (or any other vices that one might have).   It's not going to kill you tomorrow.   Otherwise everyone would quit.  In the meantime our online vices feel kind of good and we voluntarily allow the data miners to collect massive amounts of personal info about us.

Doctorow said that he needed a reason other than health reasons to give up smoking...so he decided to buy himself a new laptop every year with the money he saved.

So I guess perhaps the key to getting folks to move away from the data miners is to find reasons other than protecting our personal privacy to make the move to privacy respecting things.

One of my free software activist "gurus" (Eben Moglen of the Software Freedom Law Centre) has talked about how the data mining business has become one of the major activities of 21st century North American capitalism since we manufacture very little in this part of the world anymore.

I also find it interesting that the biggest (so far) political crisis in Canada has involved the ruling party's manipulation of data collected through data mining activities.

And what I find even funnier, is folks posting on Facebook about the Conservative Party's election data mining software.   As Bart Simpson would say "Duh".