I don't believe this is quite correct. The EFF article clarifies this in an update: > [UPDATE 2/22/2012]: Note that disabling Web History in your Google accoun

I don't believe this is quite correct. The EFF article clarifies this in an update: > [UPDATE 2/22/2012]: Note that disabling Web History in your Google account will not prevent Google from gathering and storing this information and using it for internal purposes. It also does not change the fact that any information gathered and stored by Google could be sought by law enforcement. > With Web History enabled, Google will keep these records indefinitely; with it disabled, they will be partially anonymized after 18 months, and certain kinds of uses, including sending you customized search results, will be prevented. If you want to do more to reduce the records Google keeps, the advice in EFF's Six Tips to Protect Your Search Privacy white paper remains relevant. I found this link in google's privacy FAQ, but there may be a better one out there: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/preview/faq/#toc-store http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/preview/faq/#... http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/preview/faq/#toc-anonymize http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/preview/faq/#... Of course, they unhelpfully don't enumerate all the uses of that log data, but it seems pretty clear that it isn't for personalization and (as far as I can tell) it isn't even changed at all by the new privacy policy anyway. edit: it also appears that they log by a cookie ID that isn't tied to the account. You could probably still reconstruct account information for many users (and even after anonymization a lot is revealable (see the AOL search logs debacle)), but, again, this is quite different than logging data associated with an account and using it to target advertising. > We strike a reasonable balance between the competing pressures we face, such as the privacy of our users, the security of our systems and the need for innovation. We believe anonymizing IP addresses after 9 months and cookies in our search engine logs after 18 months strikes the right balance.