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See the things you’ve searched for, visited, and watched on Google services

• 58028641 10y ago
  I might switch to DDG or StartPage now.
  • jdimov10 10y ago
    Why now? How did this page change your mind? If anything, it's a big positive. All web portals collect data about you - Google at least shows you what they know and give you some amount of control over it.
    • alphadevx 10y ago
      > All web portals collect data about you That's factually incorrect: https://duckduckgo.com/about https://duckduckgo.com/about
      • nostrademons 10y ago
        It makes me wonder how they deal with DoS attempts and abuse; most large sites need to at least store IP addresses so they can identify if a user or group of users is trying to take down the site and block them.
    • 58028641 10y ago
      I did not realize google recorded which links you clicked. Edit: I knew they recorded it. I did not know they associated it with your profile.
      • adam12 10y ago
        ?? How did you not know this? That is basically the backbone of their business.
      • Jemmeh 10y ago
        That seems like quite a natural thing to collect to improve their search algorithm at the very least. "Are people finding what they're looking for?" basically.
        • dredmorbius 10y ago
          It's not necessary to run trackers on everyone, all the time. Sampling works. Randomly selecting accounts for inclusion and immediately dissociating that account identity from the data would provide substantively useful data. Much the same way as it is possible, on the basis of 100 - 300 randomly selected G+ profiles to gain a strong sense of what the level of public activity of all 2.2 billion profiles (in use as of early 2015) was. Sure, you can increase accuracy, somewhat, by bumping up that sampling count to 50,000 profiles. As I did. Though that (and monte-carlo resampling of subsets of the profiles) substantiated the trends which were clear from the first 100 or so results. Or you can bump up the value to 500,000, as Stone Temple Consulting did. Which again, largely re-substantiated the results I'd found. Google receives something on the order of one billion searches per day. Sampling a very small percentage of those would provide very accurate results, at far smaller processing cost, and moreover, at far smaller data disclosure risk. Data are liability. Even if the concern were, say, edge cases regarding specific terms and the like, that would be possible to explore with targeted random sampling (stratified random samples). All very-well-established statistical techniques. https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/naya9wqdemiovuvwvoyquq https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/naya9wqdemiovuvwvoyquq
          • Jemmeh 10y ago
            Well just making sure people are finding what they want is only part of it. Since so much of their revenue is from ads, the better their targeting, the more money they make. If they have all this data on a person, they can target on a per person basis. And that money is probably talking louder than any care about liability from data based on how much they're collecting. They're a business, they have to have revenue in some way. I'm making some assumptions, please correct me if I'm wrong.
      • sp332 10y ago
        Go to any Google results page, right-click a result and copy the URL. Paste it and see what's really in there. It's not the actual link you wanted, instead it's a link to a Google server with lots of metadata about your search that redirects you to the link you wanted after recording everything about your search.
      • tonylemesmer 10y ago
        if you use Firefox there is an addon called Google Redirects Fixer [1] [1] https://matagus.github.io/remove-google-redirects-addon/ https://matagus.github.io/remove-google-redirects-addon/
      • WayneBro 10y ago
        They haven't been tracking which links I click for the past five years or so since I've been running an extension like "Don't track me Google" - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dont-track-me-google/gdbofhhdmcladcmmfjolgndfkpobecpg?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dont-track-me-goog... The reason I started running that extension is because I i was sick of waiting for google.com to redirect me.
    • hueving 10y ago
      Google is only showing a small bit about what they know so it's misleading to think they are a leader in this regard. There is nothing here about all of the sites they know you visit because of ad tracking, etc.
  • buremba 10y ago
    IMHO that's not the proper reaction for this news, everybody already knows Google collects data about you.
    • icebraining 10y ago
      everybody already knows I've learned to know that's never true, and even when people "know", often they don't actually know in a non-abstract sense.
    • rmchugh 10y ago
      It makes it a lot more concrete for me. I can see not only all of my search activity, browsing etc, but also that my partner has done on our shared tablet. It's creepy. But it did make me aware of a Chrome setting to disable activity tracking. I'll change that as soon as I get home.
      • tokenizerrr 10y ago
        > I can see not only all of my search activity, browsing etc, but also that my partner has done on our shared tablet. You could pull up the (local) browser history and see exactly the same information there.
  • SquareWheel 10y ago
    I'm surprised privacy folks aren't happy with this tool. It shows exactly what they collect, lets you edit it, or disable features granularity. Is it just surprise that they are in fact collecting this information? Because I thought that was pretty well known.
    • vmateixeira 10y ago
      Shows exactly what they collect? You think? Edit, maybe delete? From your view, you mean... or from their databases?
      • SquareWheel 10y ago
        Neither. It becomes unassociated with your account. It still provides aggregate data to them, but respects your privacy. "From better commute options in Maps to quicker results in Search, the data we save with your account can make Google services more useful to you. Using Activity Controls, you can decide what gets associated with your account and pause the collection of specific types of data — like your searches and browsing activity, the places you go, and information from your devices." https://privacy.google.com/take-control.html https://privacy.google.com/take-control.html
    • dredmorbius 10y ago
      The message is decidely mixed. On the one hand, yes, it's a level of transparency. And there are some controls. Exceptionally cumbersome controls, particularly if you manage multiple accounts. Quite notably lacking in the ability to entirely disable multiple services -- I have no use or wish for Blogger, YouTube, Maps, or other activity tracking. I don't want Google tracking my location data at all, in any way -- not GPS, not WiFi connections, not cell towers. Nada. I can't say that. I cannot globally disable or deny specific permissions from Android applications (Android 5.x, supposely 6.x offers slighly improved controls). I've written elsewhere about how the entire Android app store is a complete toxic cesspit and mess. So, yes, Google give you some insight on what information they gather, which is better than many other services. They offer exceptionally poor controls over it. And the company has been either exceptionally passive-aggressive in re-enabling tracking of data users have denied it, and re-establishing or linking services they've expressely stated they don't want re-established or linked (see my comments elsewhere in this thread), or they're manifestly incompetent to manage what they've built. I'm not sure which possibility concerns me more. Keep in mind that Google: 1. Already are the number-one producer and software provider for personal pervasive hackable broad-spectrum surveillance devices. Which is to say, Android-based phones, tablets, notebooks, and other products. 2. Are service provider to a tremendous number of third-party services and companies. I can shun use of Google but still need to fight against its email servers, web tracking tools, fonts, and javascript servers, just off the top. 3. Put cameras directly on peoples faces and got all flustered when it turned out that the people those cameras were pointed at didn't like the idea. Google Glassholes. 4. Are planning to put a live, always-on, 24/7/365 microphone with remote processing in homes, offices, businesses, and other locations. 5. Are planning to produce "driverless cars" which will operate as either privately-owned or business-service vehicles, yet another venue in which my privacy is directly compromised in circumstances well outside my control. The absolute mandate for Google to operate without the slightest hint of misplaced trust is extreme. I frankly don't see how they can meet it, and predict spectacular failure.
• jdimov10 10y ago
  "You can easily delete specific items or entire topics. You can also change your settings and decide what data gets associated with your account." I guess that's nice. I wonder if they'd still keep the original data points.
  • Spooks 10y ago
    I wish they made it even easier, a delete all would be great, or a delete between these dates.
    • icebraining 10y ago
      There's a "Delete Results" option in the three-dots menu. You can just search between two dates and then use that feature.
    • sygma 10y ago
      It is possible to do that on this page: https://myactivity.google.com/delete-activity https://myactivity.google.com/delete-activity
  • brianberlin 10y ago
    I turned on "Web and App Activity" and those items didn't then appear in my timeline. That might indicate that they don't but I doubt it.
    • 0xmohit 10y ago
      Chances are that they fixed the bug so that items show up as per your opt-in status at that time.
  • torrent-of-ions 10y ago
    Of course they do. "Delete" in google/facebook/etc. just sets "visible to me" equal to false.
    • e12e 10y ago
• supersan 10y ago
  I was not expecting to see my Reddit activity on that list.
  • mistermann 10y ago
    Where'd you see that, I don't see anything on mine.
    • dyladan 10y ago
      I see web browsing history on mine, presumably because I am logged into chrome.
    • supersan 10y ago
      My activity is full of Visited "then some link on reddit". Guess reddit accounts for majority of my visits, so maybe that's why.
• ohitsdom 10y ago
  It's only showing Youtube activity for me, I must have some privacy settings on search to disable this but can't remember changing anything...
  • djent 10y ago
    Strange, it's not showing any of my YouTube activity, and that's the Google service I use the most.
    • icebraining 10y ago
      Same here. In my case, I'd bet it's because I still use my old profile from before the G+ merger (I never agreed to use the new one, despite their insistence).
      • ohitsdom 10y ago
        Yeah I have two types of Youtube accounts tied to my Google account. One is my official full name, and one is my nickname that I used before Youtube started trying to force people to use their full name. This activity site only shows activity from when I use Youtube under my full actual name.
  • fokinsean 10y ago
    Me too. https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols
  • nitemice 10y ago
    Same. I logged in with my university-issued account, and all tracking is disabled by default except for YouTube. I tried turning on Web & App Activity just to see what it caught, and it turned it off again. I'm not sure, but I think that makes me feel slightly better about my university.
• deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
• whym 10y ago
  It seems that this page lists activities I have done intentionally, such as queries I entered. I'd be much more interested to see what data I gave to Google unintentionally - e.g. what Google-provided ads I saw on non-Google sites, what sites with Google Analytics I visited, etc.
  • dyladan 10y ago
    This seems the closest thing https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity?product=27 https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity?product=27
    • e12e 10y ago
      Kind of funny that these pages require you to log in with a Google account. I don't believe Google won't record any data without the browser in question being signed in...
  • deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  • Jaruzel 10y ago
    Try the links here: http://www.jaruzel.com/How-Much-Does-Google-Know-About-Me http://www.jaruzel.com/How-Much-Does-Google-Know-About-Me Especially the Dashboard one. I use these a lot to make sure I'm not leaking any data more than I have to, to Google.
• buremba 10y ago
  If I understand correctly, you can prevent Google to track your activity in this page: https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols
  • macintux 10y ago
    The frustrating part about both prevention and tracking is that you can't find out what Google is doing to you without an account. What, as someone who avoids Google accounts and most of their services like the plague, do you know about me? <= question I'd like answered
    • pavanky 10y ago
      I am assuming it is on the same level as a guy sitting on a bench in a park watching people everyday. He notices certain people going to the same coffee shops around the same time of day, he notices others like to come out for a smoke a few times. He may even notice the types of coffee / clothes they prefer and build profiles in his head. All this without knowing the people personally. Now this person could be doing this for fun, or he could be sent there for research (for advertising) or for surveillance. Why is it then people are paranoid about a website collecting stats anonymously, but do not so about going into public places?
      • icebraining 10y ago
        Because there aren't guys sitting on benches on every corner, while Google is everywhere on the web.
      • e12e 10y ago
        I don't know about you, but I'm not going public places in my underwear at 3 in the morning. It's a little absurd to state that there's no expectation of privacy on the web. That, and Google isn't like one man sitting on a corner. It's like a network of guys, on every corner - that compare notes every evening. Regardless of why they do that, it's hard to call it anything other than surveillance.
      • 10y ago
• mpitt 10y ago
  Wow, I know Google knows a lot about me, but apparently it can predict that I'll use Telegram on March 15, 2016 at 4:53 AM! (Either that, or my phone briefly had a very incorrect time setting.)
  • zeven7 10y ago
    I don't understand this comment. "predict" "March 15, 2016". It's already 4 months past that date.
    • mpitt 10y ago
      Whoops! It actually said 2061 but my fingers autocorrected that for me :/
  • 0xdada 10y ago
    Strange, I also have an entry from March 13, 2061.
  • dredmorbius 10y ago
    That (or rather, 2061), is 2^32 seconds from an epoch date of 1925. I'm not familiar with any systems that use 1925 as epochs. For Unix, it's Jan 1, 1970. For DOS, I believe it's Jan 1, 1900, though with a leap-year error (there is a Feb 29, 1900 included that shouldn't be). For SAS (statistical software), it's Jan 1, 1960. Apple should use the Unix Epoch. Curious.
• 1gn1t10n 10y ago
  Ahh... It's so satisfying to see the stream of everything I was doing on Android suddenly stop when I switched to Cyanogenmod and not linked my e-mail account. The trick was to use K-9 Mail. Otherwise, when configuring the e-mail (Gmail), the default mail application adds the entire Google account and the link to the mothership is reestablished. Although I have installed GApps, I transitioned to a dummy account per device plus Xprivacy, plus NetGuard. Long before Android, the stream had dropped to a trickle when I started sandboxing the Google account to a special session for Gmail. Everything else, searches, youtube went on an incognito window or to a separate Firefox profile. I knew it to be effective from the constant e-mails I was getting that "Google does not recognize your sign-on". Guess what, Google, I want it that way! Now myactivity.google.com confirms it.
  • FungalRaincloud 10y ago
    It's true, you can cut off the data stream. I have done so, at times, myself. At this point, though, I have it on (with some device exceptions where I do anything that might be sensitive, or I might want to avoid someone accidentally finding out [e.g. gift purchases]). My reasoning is that I am likely being tracked no matter whether it's on or not. At bare minimum, even with stringent cookie policies and software removing "tracers" on a regular basis, my cellphone carrier, or isp, can track what I'm doing, unless I have a VPN on. While I don't mind having a VPN on, when I don't have it on, it makes the most sense to me to be able to view just what I've been doing. I like having that log, because I then have an idea of what other companies know about me. It sucks that I'm put in the situation where handing over my data to someone who does the responsible thing and reports it to me is a sensible choice in my eyes.
  • tonylemesmer 10y ago
    So I'm using stock LG G3 Android Marshmallow (completely stock manufacturer ROM). I have Google settings kinda locked down as much as possible and I've been carefully managing app permissions since I upgraded from Android 5. My google activity shows only google maps searches from the device and some google website searches from desktop (probably from when I happened to be logged into GMail and made a search query via google.com). I use Gmail on Android, Signal for SMS (no-one I know uses Signal) and Firefox with self-destructing cookies and uBlock origin (I use a similar setup on desktop too - to prevent persistent logins) I can't see any other activity being logged. That's not to say that it isn't flowing through Google's pipes somewhere or other. My point is that I'm only conducting basic privacy measures but (as in, not having to root or reflash my phone) - and not having most of my activity recorded in this dashboard.
• cdnsteve 10y ago
  I'm glad to see this data provided back to me, however, I'm very concerned about Google knowing absolutely everything I do while on the web and on my Android device. - Used Messenger app, sent X messages - Used maps, with location data, search data - Use phone, with number of calls - Used (Any installed app) included how often and what I did. I've since turned everything off. While browsing on my phone last night I saw a new Google.com feature where they were using my email address to try sign me up to email lists at the top of search results.... Not cool.
  • izacus 10y ago
    It's even worse due to all the dark patterns Google adds. For example Maps will refuse to locally store your previous searches if you don't let google keep your location history, making the use of application extremely frustrating. Trying to use Google Fit, Now, etc. will keep popping up requests to let Google constantly track your location and web searches with o clear way to disable those annoyances. And more and more.
    • FungalRaincloud 10y ago
      Most frustrating to me is the "high accuracy" location service. No, I do not want you to track what wireless SSIDs I'm near. Accurate within 25 feet, as GPS usually is for me, is just fine.
      • pavanky 10y ago
        Is this still an issue? I don't remember Google asking me to do this for a long time now.
        • e12e 10y ago
          As far as I know, they've just mudded up the language, so it's not obvious that you check "Yes, please report all my friends and associates wlan ids/location and store them in one huge database that's available to Google, law enforcement etc. And once you've clicked yes, I don't think they ask again. In my (Sony) Marshmallow/Android 6.0 phone it lets one choose: "Location mode": "High accurancy" (Use GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or mobile networks to determine location), "Battery saving" (Wi-fi, bluetooth or mobile networks) and "Device Only" (Use GPS to determine location). Just now noticed it says "High Accuracy" (I believe Google Maps will nag you into submission on this, if you try to use GPS only).
• MOARDONGZPLZ 10y ago
  For those of you interested, and I didn't see it in the above link, this is a link to all your Google Location History, it must only be Android because I'm not seeing a lot of travel I did while I had an iPhone: https://www.google.com/maps/timeline https://www.google.com/maps/timeline
  • greggman 10y ago
    It's not only Android. I use iPhone. I use Google Maps. I intentionally have location tracking on. I'm not sure which apps contribute but I assume all google apps can or do. http://imgur.com/g0St0b1 http://imgur.com/g0St0b1
    • honkhonkpants 10y ago
      This feature has moved back and forth from maps to Google Plus and back to Maps over the years.
• sheeshkebab 10y ago
  Thanks - deleted all of my stuff and turned of all further collection. gosh google...
  • mangeletti 10y ago
    Frustratingly, I think what "deleted all my stuff" might actually mean is "deleted my access to all of that stuff".
    • whamlastxmas 10y ago
      Even if it did delete it, it could also be "deleted this particular copy of my data"
  • 0xmohit 10y ago
    Even if you were to delete your Google account, be assured that your data would remain safe with them.
• spaceisballer 10y ago
  That last data points they have from me is April 20, 2015. Maybe I locked down all my privacy settings then. Or I guess it helps to be using an iPhone.
  • pingec 10y ago
    Perhaps you have these on OFF https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols
    • ThatGeoGuy 10y ago
      Interesting use of the language here: Google does not allow you to turn settings off, it merely allows you to PAUSE them. Say what you want about the end result, but the way they weasel around with words here makes me feel uncomfortable.
• laser 10y ago
  Funnily I've gotten pretty used to seeing my logged browser history the past week or so intermixed with a few other friends as I've built this webapp (http://www.websee.io/ http://www.websee.io/) that anonymously aggregates browsing activity from all the users and displays the content with the highest recent crossover, basically sharp peaks in browsing distribution across all URLS. It's odd to me that Google collects all this data, but doesn't really seem to offer any specific applications that depend on it, individually or in aggregate. Even though they have trends, they don't have any lists like Alexa of top traffic websites, despite the fact they have a better sample than anyone, and could make such information available. I guess I can just hope that between the more "interesting" ads they show me and whatever other magic they use the data for to improve their services, that it's worth letting them have it.
  • blahi 10y ago
    Uhm, like google now??
  • honkhonkpants 10y ago
    Your history is a silent input to search which radically increases search quality. Your browsing history would show up to you as chrome omnibox autocomplete syncing across devices and the ability to open on one device tabs that are open on your other logged in devices, if you use Chrome.
• mikegerwitz 10y ago
  Can we start a thread (this one) listing the data that people see available, for someone who doesn't have a Google account and is curious what sort of data are collected? There's some stuff scattered throughout the comments, but it'd be nice to have a single spot.
  • yvesmh 10y ago
    Looking at mine I see: * My Google searches, this includes audio searches and it let me play the audio. * Watched Youtube videos * Pages viewed on Chrome I don't see any Android activity besides the google searches, could be because I'm using Sultan's CyanogenMod.
  • testrecord 10y ago
    I don't own an android phone, so there may be some more I don't see, but heres my list: Web & App activity (search activity on apps and in browsers) Location History (Creates a private map of where you go with your signed-in devices) Device Information (contacts, calendars, apps, and other device data) Voice & Audio Activity (storing your voice and audio inputs to your account, for example, when you say "Ok Google" to do a voice search) YouTube Search History (Store your YouTube searches) YouTube Watch History They all have an opt out toggle.
  • pmontra 10y ago
    Even if I use and Android phone I don't use gmail (K9 instead) and don't login in Google (I search from the browser), YouTube and maps. Only in Play Store, that can't be helped. I opted out from every tracking they let me opt out from, ads, location, etc. That service confirmed that there is no data about me. I believe they know much more than that, but at least I'm making it a little more difficult for them.
• bikamonki 10y ago
  I immediately deleted all activity from all time, however, I do not trust this was truly deleted nor that it was never shared "anonymously" with third parties.
• falcolas 10y ago
  Funny - I remember opting out of all of Google's data collection years ago. I went there fully expecting Google to have no activity recorded, as I have seen when this page (or its ilk) have popped up in the past. Much to my surprise, it was well populated again, with my web browsing/searching, YouTube, and location histories all turned back on again. I don't use the Chrome browser (aside from compatibility testing), and I don't use Android. I'd be very curious to know how all of this was re-enabled without my involvement. Very unfortunate, and another straw for the camel's back.
  • SquareWheel 10y ago
    You probably opted out of relevant ads. This is a different feature as it integrates with other products (eg. Google Now). See the activity controls to opt out here. https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols
    • falcolas 10y ago
      That those are different controls says a lot about how Google feels about making it possible to opt out of all their tracking. That said, since there were some controls disabled, and some enabled, I'm more inclined to believe that they were re-enabled, if not automatically, then via some dark pattern. It's also possible that they were just new tracking points, but one of them was my search history, which I recall explicitly disabling.
      • SquareWheel 10y ago
        I think new controls are part of it, but they've also redesigned the account manager to brings all your settings (privacy and otherwise) under one roof. I noticed it when they started pushing the privacy check-up feature.
      • rtpg 10y ago
        I think that not wanting personalised ads but wanting Google Now's feature is a pretty reasonable and self consistent position....
• whamlastxmas 10y ago
  It's safer to assume everything you input into a device is being recorded regardless of settings. If I want privacy, I'll use Tails OS with Tor. Since that's a pain to use I just don't do or write anything on the internet I don't want tracked back to me.
  • gryphonshafer 10y ago
    I have this argument with my wife every few months. She posts things on a popular social media platform and sets them "private" in full expectation that the content will only be shared with those she selects. Then she gets pissed when she later discovers the privacy settings didn't work the way she expected. Anything pushed to the internet should be assumed public unless encrypted using open source encryption tools you completely control in a safe zone (like in Tails). All internet activity should be assumed to be logged somewhere, somehow. I don't even 100% trust Tor.
  • jomamaxx 10y ago
    "I just don't do or write anything on the internet I don't want tracked back to me." That's a rather Orwellian statement ...
• benologist 10y ago
  This needs a much more efficient way to purge everything instead of the three-clicks-per-day. Edit: there is: https://myactivity.google.com/delete-activity https://myactivity.google.com/delete-activity
  • gvurrdon 10y ago
    Does this also delete location history?
• blfr 10y ago
  I'm always surprised how little Google manage to do with all that info. I have a personal Google Apps account and their absolute highest achievement from knowing nearly my entire location history over the past three years, searches, current position, having all the contacts, calendar, list of my apps, even purchase history (through email receipts if they wanted it) is Google Now occasionally correctly suggesting the next destination. Other location suggestions? Crap unless explicitly entered in the Calendar. Article suggestions in Google Now? Crap. Despite having my entire Feedly info (300+ feeds) from which they pull most useless cards. Youtube suggestions in Google Now are somehow even worse than video suggestions in the Youtube app. Ads? Complete garbage and borderline fraud against all these companies paying to advertise mobile games which I almost never play and they know it. Bizarrely, I have a Google Apps account at work with much, much less info and it's actually a little better.
  • honkhonkpants 10y ago
    Users who use Inbox instead of gmail should get a lot more rich inputs to Now. Appointments would be deduced from emails, for example, and Now will show you tracking information taken from orders in your receipts, and much more.
    • 0xmohit 10y ago
      Now hasn't started reading email now. Somebody gleefully mentioned to me several months back that Now reminds her of bills (due dates and amounts) automatically. Essentially by reading emails from gmail. I was also told that by evening it'd start telling by itself the approximate time it would take to reach home. For some such inputs are rich, for others scary.
      • honkhonkpants 10y ago
        A computer program does not "read" your email in a meaningfully "scary" way.
        • 0xmohit 10y ago
• geomark 10y ago
  I'm only seeing the very few times I've signed into Google to upload a video to YouTube. I infrequently use Gmail on my Android but no signs of it in my activity - aren't Gmail logins along with location logged?
• Aoyagi 10y ago
  Yeah, all I have there are three Youtube videos I watched in 2015 (even though I do use my Youtube account almost daily). I'm content with this. What I'm not content with is that they're showing it in a wrong language, but I guess I can't ask for good webdesign from someone like Google.
• exabrial 10y ago
  Given all this, why does Google News ABSOLUTELY INSIST I live in St. Louis when in fact I do not?
  • nacs 10y ago
    They're probably doing some basic geolocation based on your IP only for Google News.
• vmateixeira 10y ago
  This is just what they want you to think they know...
• oliwarner 10y ago
  "Only you can see this data" Side-stepping for a minute that Google and governments can also see this data, this sort of wholesale data aggregation and presentation seriously ups the ante for account security. Getting somebody's Google account from third-party breach-de-jour used to mean you got their email history, or could pretend to be them... But with this you have their browsing, app, search and location history. That is to say, you can discover: What they're doing. Where they're doing it. What they're thinking about (I search everything). Who they interact with. Worse, I wasn't prompted for any sort of password. Physical access to my computer (and I assume phone) now gives easy access historical surveillance data. Welcome to the new generation of identity theft.
  • rkangel 10y ago
    I noted that even though I was already logged in, it still asked me for my password (and then 2FA token). That is one step at least.
    • pinum 10y ago
      It asked for my password but not my 2FA. Strange. (I also had no results, though, because I've turned everything off.)
  • ubercore 10y ago
    It also helps one keep tabs on activity in their account, so compromises will be more apparent. I had my phone stolen recently, and use this and android device manager to make sure nobody is in my google account (it was encrypted with a fingerprint, but you never know...). I've been very impressed with their smarts about security, they seem to tow a fine line between security and convenience. Any sensitive account information like this will usually trigger a new password entry (unless you've entered it recently), or 2fa.
  • che_shirecat 10y ago
    The scary thing about Google and other tech juggernauts is the single point of failure that represent for the security of one's identity. Integrating all of the tech services a person would use (social media SSO, acquisitions/mergers of smaller tech service companies) is great for convenience, but the compromising of a single account is now an event that can't just be shrugged off anymore. People now exist more and more online, and there hasn't been a parallel increase in the amount of thought put into dealing with the consequences of this shift.
• jomamaxx 10y ago
  Does anyone not feel that this is deeply problematic? What's worse is the faux 'Silicon Valley' ethos / koolaid they put on us. A regular company doing this does it for obvious reasons. But Google sticks to their 'Do No Evil' mantra, which I find entirely hypocritical: 'We say we are Doing No Evil, ergo, we are not doing any evil'. I find it doubly disturbing. They're even worse than classical companies, and yet somehow through their own branding koolaid would have us believe that they are 'more moral'.
  • jomamaxx 10y ago
    It's funny the koolaid extends to hackernews. A 'big corp' like Google uses fairly nefarious practices, makes it nary impossible to 'opt out' of their 'life tracking' measures, and uses that information for their own profit whilst at the same time 'virtue signalling' and extolling some kind of moral premise ... and you buy it? The lack of self awareness in the Valley is sometimes disturbing.
  • bogomipz 10y ago
    Cognitive Dissonance. F Google.
• AngeloAnolin 10y ago
  Just another way of saying that whether in the browser or mobile device and you're signed in to Google, any stuff you do that touches Google is being tracked.
• dom96 10y ago
  Wow, my activity goes back all the way to 2006. While it is very interesting to see what I've been searching in 2006, it is also very scary knowing Google has this data.
  • SquareWheel 10y ago
    There's a tool to bulk delete that data if you're not comfortable with it. https://myactivity.google.com/delete-activity https://myactivity.google.com/delete-activity
• ausjke 10y ago
  Is there a panic button that I can press now to 100% opt out of this ? Google is effectively transforming itself from an ad company to a big/huge brother, the real big brother that now knows everything I do. Facebook is no better either.
  • ausjke 10y ago
    the disgusting part is that, that activities logging is all on by default, and when you delete them you have to pick one activity a time(there is no reset all logs to zero option), google you're indeed evil.
    • ausjke 10y ago
      https://myactivity.google.com/delete-activity https://myactivity.google.com/delete-activity that does have an option to delete everything, just did that.
  • dredmorbius 10y ago
    Not that I'm aware. You can delete / regenerate accounts. If you've got a Google account in which you have a need for persistent data -- say, Gmail, Webmaster Tools, or YouTube, you might limit yourself to using those from only isolated accounts or tools. Mind that using, say, the Android Gmail or YouTube app isn't sufficient for this as your Android device ID itself (which can also be regenerated) appears to be part of the information, and that these applications use the Android identity store to track IDs, which Google apps share amongst themselves. Android as of 5.x does allow multiple device users, so you might split your use across multiple users. For Gmail, you can enable IMAPS support and use a third-party IMAPS-enabled email app (K-Mail is a decent one for Android, it supports PGP as well). Creating new Google accounts may demand you supply a phone number. I'm not sure where this is or isn't a requirement, and I've seen that come and go at various times. There are alternative services, though these have their own issues. Google provides free-of-cost access, and using a paid service generally creates a payment-identity record should you use another service, as well as risks of service cancellation for non-payment. A long-term assurred service with privacy baked-in would be slick. I've minimised though by no means eliminated my use of Google. I increasingly view it as directly hostile.
• stirner 10y ago
  They don't show you the dossier if you don't log in, even though they certainly have one.
• reddit_clone 10y ago
  I use three different browsers. Chrome : Work related applications only. Minimal extensions. Firefox: Locked down. (NoScript, Privacy Badger, uBlock origin) For general web browsing and searching. IE: For gmail and google apps and nothing else. I like to see google frantically suggesting I use chrome every time I access GMail !
• rajathagasthya 10y ago
  Stupid question, but can Google (or Bing) associate what you searched for or which link you clicked in incognito searches? I've always wondered how truly incognito they are.
  • Mahn 10y ago
    Well of course. The only thing the browser incognito mode guarantees is that no local data will stay around (cookies, cache, history, etc), but beyond that there's nothing stopping Google or any other online service from collecting and extrapolating data, even if you are not logged in.
  • Andrex 10y ago
    Even without cookies, etc. your browser and computer basically act as a "fingerprint" of sorts anyways. They have your IP address, resolution, OS, browser engine, etc. To avoid this you could try stripping out the user agent, changing the size of your browser window and using a VPN (I believe that's what the Tor browser basically does, anyways.)
  • dredmorbius 10y ago
    If that's your concern, run searches through a Tor browser and Tor connection. The default Tor browser is stripped of identifying information. The Tor conection means your traffic is bundled with many, many others users. The downside I've found, for Google search, is that Google subjects all, or at least all I've run, Tor search requests to a CAPTCHA request. Torbot and Torfox on Android get stuck on this, and it's consequently impossible to run Google Web search over Tor on Android. So I use DDG, which is my default search anyway. DDG doesn't track users or history.
• graeme 10y ago
  What are best practices for blocking tracking on iOS? What I'm doing now is: Vpn Logged out of Google maps, YouTube, etc. Safari privacy settings to most private. Only exception was allowing cookies on current site only, rather than never Focus by Firefox with all privacy options checked DuckDuckGo for search. Anything else? Also, how do you do a non indented list in hacker news? I have never figured this out. Update: I added some stuff. I began using 1blocker. Disabled all cookies by default, but am whitelisting them on site only for a few sites I have to log in to. Using this site to test. Now with Vpn on, only hardware, software and gyroscope are leaking. Not sure there is any way to block this on iOS. http://webkay.robinlinus.com http://webkay.robinlinus.com
  • dredmorbius 10y ago
    Non-indented HN lists: seperate items by two carriage returns. I typically number mine: 1. First item. 2. Second item.
    • graeme 10y ago
      1. Thank you! 2. It works. 3. I'm happy. This will make for better comments.
• lucb1e 10y ago
  I'm really happy to see that the last thing I did on any Google service while logged in, was June 27th. This means Self-Destructing Cookies is really working and all embedded Youtube videos in pages don't keep the cookie active.
  • Ankurkkhurana 10y ago
    Can you explain a bit more on this ?
    • lucb1e 10y ago
      Well I'm happy that it's a while ago that Google could attribute anything as belonging to me, from a privacy perspective.
      • mderazon 10y ago
        I think he/she meant the self destructing cookies
        • lucb1e 10y ago
          Self-Destructing Cookies is an add-on that deletes cookies after they are no longer in use. When I log in to example.com and close the tab, all cookies set by example.com will be deleted (after a configurable time, default 90 seconds I think). It has a whitelist to prevent certain domains (that you want to stay logged into) from having their cookies deleted. It does the same for localStorage and other such technologies. Very simple, but very effective in preventing tracking.
• tinco 10y ago
  Excellent, I like how it weaves my girlfriend looking for the perfect bra through my research on collision search strategies in physics engines. Would Google in any way discern between those two sessions? Me sitting at the desk doing some hobby coding performing a query like "DBVTBroadPhase", her on the couch on my laptop looking for inspiration performing queries like "michelle branch instagram". To a human it doesn't take much to jump to the conclusion that two totally different persons are using the same account at the same time. But maybe that isn't even of interest to google. Me and my GF are basically one entity to them. We frequent HN and skinnycurvy.com, we like Michelle Branch and Steve Klabnik (;)), we do pilates at the gym while at the same time play underwaterhockey at the sports centre. Any ads Google shows us might have a 50% chance of being shown to the right person, and that's probably good enough. Maybe they get lucky and I'll mention some womans brand I saw in an advert to my gf sometime.
  • agildehaus 10y ago
    Chrome has user profiles you could use to separate things, but it would take conscious effort to switch between them each time.
    • softawre 10y ago
      Only works if there's a carrot. Netflix does this too, and we always use it because (1) it always asks you up front and (2) if we use the wrong user we'll destroy our recommendations.
      • lostlogin 10y ago
        And if I have to see another frame of Jake and the Neverland Pirates there is a very real risk of a self inflicted injury. Their multiple accounts thing is great.
      • fenomas 10y ago
        Not sure what you mean, the benefits of separate browser profiles are huge and obvious - separate tracking for logins, sessions, etc. Before profiles came along my wife and I just used different browsers - otherwise we'd have spent all our time logging out of and back into facebook and twitter and so on. Profiles fixes that. You can even make desktop shortcuts to launch Chrome with a given profile, so in practice it's like having two different apps. I guess you could launch one instance and swap users but we don't bother.
• codq 10y ago
  Extremely excited to learn that Google is tracking my DuckDuckGo searches from the ChromeBar.
  • 0xmohit 10y ago
    If you are using Chrome, then you don't need to worry at all. Your browser is uniquely identified regardless of your network location or browsing mode or profile or whatever.
    • ivm 10y ago
      Ok, that's it, time to switch to Safari. I was using private windows for searches for years but had no idea about unique browser ID. Also Chrome crashes multiple times a week on macOS nowadays.
      • magicalist 10y ago
        > I was using private windows for searches for years but had no idea about unique browser ID Fine to switch, but the GP is wrong. This is not a thing that exists.
      • krisdol 10y ago
        Honestly Safari is far more battery efficient than any other major browser available on OS X. Whenever I want to watch netflix or HBO and have only about an episode's worth of battery life left, I switch to safari and usually gain a real 10-15 minutes on the battery estimate. The CPU runs cooler streaming HD video than both Firefox and Chrome.
        • ivm 10y ago
          One more awesome thing: accessibility is always enabled in Safari. Chrome and FF keep it turned off by default for performance reasons.
• cloudjacker 10y ago
  From a UX perspective, I thought I was only searching for certain things on certain accounts, but saw the majority of those searches index under my employer's non-default google apps account. Thats not what I was going for at all.
• bluegate010 10y ago
  This site exemplifies something that really annoys me with Google's material design framework. On my 13" screen, I can see a grand total of four items at a time: https://i.imgur.com/6YJxj0b.png https://i.imgur.com/6YJxj0b.png I really wish they'd consider information density as a plus when designing pages like this.
  • coldpie 10y ago
    It's more than material design, it's all modern design. Most modern websites, application UIs, game UIs, all have inches and inches and inches of whitespace.
  • xanderstrike 10y ago
    That's because you're screen is rotated the wrong way. Looks like this site was designed for the most common user, who is on mobile and has a lot more vertical real estate than horizontal. That's not a material problem really. It's just this site.
• y04nn 10y ago
  When I want to download my searches, it goes up to 1 year. Does google not keep more than 1 year of data? Is it required to them to remove data after 1 year?
• tlrobinson 10y ago
  Is there any way to dump the raw data? My wife and I maintain a list of ridiculous oddball Google searches we've made in the past (no, you can't see it). It would be interesting to try to train an AI to find the ones we've missed...
  • deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  • dredmorbius 10y ago
    Check the Data Liberation Front / Data Take Out. Google actually are pretty good at providing that, and I think it does include search activity, if requested.
• oDot 10y ago
  A long time ago I opted out of Google Map's search history. A few months ago I searched for a business on maps, and had to type the full name. The second time I searched for it, it came up the top suggestion. I do not trust these "privacy features" since.
  • makecheck 10y ago
    Web sites definitely have the ability to attempt profiling based on what they are allowed to see (e.g. your IP address, browser, OS, typical window size). They simply guess that it is still “you” and return what “you” just did.
    • oDot 10y ago
      It was on Android's Google Maps app using 3G
      • leesalminen 10y ago
        That could possibly be a local cache though.
        • oDot 10y ago
          I did some tests and you are correct! Nice catch
• fibbery 10y ago
  Wow the filtering controls are pretty terrible. No way to type in dates, for one.
  • Ankurkkhuran 10y ago
    You can use the epoch time in the url for the filtering. That is lot easier than using a picker.
    • fibbery 10y ago
      Thanks for the tip!
• phil248 10y ago
  Great, let me waste some time analyzing an in-depth report on how I waste my time!
• drusepth 10y ago
  This is awesome. Crazy to be able to analyze activity so in depth. Does anyone know if there are any opt-in data sources that feed into this? I'd like to keep it as comprehensive as possible.
• jasonkostempski 10y ago
  It seems every few weeks some new account tracking feature turns up that I have to clear and disable. Considering this had stuff I though I cleared last time, I'm pretty sure "Delete" doesn't mean jack to Google. The only thing keeping me on Google is a pretty simple calendar and spreadsheet script I use to track my finances. If I can find an alternative to that, I'm Audi 5000.
• uberneo 10y ago
  An Analytics solution on top of this data would be amazing ..
• uberneo 10y ago
  I wonder if we can download/scrape all the data..
• makecheck 10y ago
  The frustrating thing to me about current sharing/observing of data is that everything is a “trapdoor”: if your data leaks out, there is probably no way to regain control (“privacy panels” are nothing but a feel-good measure that still depends a lot on bug-free software and the goodwill of others). You only need to fail to protect your privacy once, and after that it almost doesn’t matter what you do. We must rethink infrastructure to the point where the only data that we transmit is data that is inherently useless after a time. If I do something like revoke my key, it should be impossible for anyone to further use that data. Expiration dates should be baked directly into protocols so that revocation of keys and expiration are the same thing: either I revoke my key myself, or my software revokes it for me but no one else (and their buggy or insidious software) gets to decide how to respect the expiration time.
  • pdkl95 10y ago
    What we need to do is build a Ulysses pact[1] into the infrastructure. This worked for a while with the w3c regarding patents. I highly recommend watching Cory Doctorow's (very) recent talk[2] on this idea, where he observes that engineers are vulnerable to incremental corruption of principles. [1] An agreement, contract, or bylaw that prohibits some type of action (e.g. a union negotiator who's payment and continued employment is contingent on never negotiation away the pension). [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlN6wjeCJYk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlN6wjeCJYk
• rampage101 10y ago
  That is so crazy that do login is needed if you are already signed into Google. I am also surprised they are sharing this feature with users.
• sickbeard 10y ago
  More like "anyone can see this data if you don't log out"
  • dredmorbius 10y ago
    You are required to authenticate again to see the information, so it's somewhat proof against casual access. This does require a strong password though.
• bogomipz 10y ago
  This is horrifying. Are they recording everything even when you aren't signed in to your Google account? Why do I need this at all? Why do I care about what I searched for 5 years ago? Time to move off of Chrome. Does all my data with Chromium get hoovered up as well?
  • bogomipz 10y ago
    Really? I'm down-voted for asking relevant questions? How childish. Is this reddit now?
    • bogomipz 10y ago
      Do you feel better now? I found the subject of this post really alarming and said as much and I was down-voted. I questioned why and instead of someone explaining I was down-voted again for my asking. Awesome. How very productive of you. Let me guess, you work for Google?
      • sowbug 10y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. I didn't downvote you, but I can confirm that your comments are boring.
• beyondcompute 10y ago
  I'd switch to Apple the month it assures me it doesn't store all that data about myself.
• lucaspottersky 10y ago
  Their date widget is ridiculous. It doesn't allow you to type dates. :sad:
• tclover 10y ago
  No activity. Some activity may not appear yet. :)
• richdougherty 10y ago
  I'm looking forward to using Firefox's new 'Contextual Identities' feature so I don't have to run separate browser profiles: https://blog.mozilla.org/tanvi/2016/06/16/contextual-identities-on-the-web/ https://blog.mozilla.org/tanvi/2016/06/16/contextual-identit...
  • dools 10y ago
    I use this: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multifox/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multifox/
• mderazon 10y ago
  I'm really happy to see this transparency. I wanna see Facebook doing something like this
• dredmorbius 10y ago
  My history is refreshingly empty. Or should I say "histories" -- there are multiple Google accounts involved, few having any variant of the names I'm known by in meatspace. Still, for some reason, there's a bunch of Google Shit I Don't Use which I cannot simply get rid of or turn off. Instead I've got to laboriously go through each one (for each Google profile), and ensure that all tracking and history are disabled. It'd be rather nice to have that fixed. After all, linking G+ and YouTube accounts just went so well, right? https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/y0ss_vplsmhsagqvf23fiq https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/y0ss_vplsmhsagqvf23fiq https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6746731 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6746731
• jaseemabid 10y ago
  Got there, and deleted all of it. ~10 years of search, browsing history and all other activity. I feel good.
• i2shar 10y ago
  I always browse and search incognito, lately on Opera with free VPN. That takes care of my desktop/work search history not being associated with my account/IP. But what is particularly insidious is the mobile click tracking. I am wary of clicking news items or links in Google Now that might reflect on my intentions in an undesirable way.
• bojo 10y ago
  Huh, I turned off web search tracking years and years ago. Glad to see they (apparently) honored that and the only thing that was being tracked was the random youtube visit.
• imron 10y ago
  Excellent. Clicking on the drop down allowed me to delete everything. I thought I'd already turned everything off, but there were still a few youtube searches in there from several years back, I guess from before I'd turned things off fully.
• mirimir 10y ago
  I wonder how many Google staff can view these data for arbitrary user foo. Is LOVEINT an issue, as with NSA?
• tempodox 10y ago
  Hmm. I'd have to sign in, giving up even more data. I'd rather delete all of my cookies every day.