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What happens when you disable the search history? A) Google no longer stores your search history. B) Google no longer lets you see or download your search his
by danbruc 12y ago
What happens when you disable the search history?
A) Google no longer stores your search history.
B) Google no longer lets you see or download your search history.
- SpaceInvader 12y agoThis is exactly the question I'm asking myself. I have search history disabled for last (at least) 5 years, but I am not sure if google isn't storing it anyways.
- realusername 12y agoI would probably bet for the second option. Google has a quite long history of keeping everything they can. The only option would be to deny the Google home page access to the Google account cookies and to add an addon to add random searches just in case.
- stinos 12y agoFor me it seems to be B: tried to download history as described in the linked blog post and it took me to a page asking if I want to enable search history. Clicked 'No thanks' and it just showed me the google start page, not even an error message or so. edit forget the above. I got an email "Your Google search history archive is ready" with a link to a Drive document. Which contained an html file saying basically "No Searches". I cannot tell if that is really correct though: I don't actively use the account let alone I remember if I turned of search history before doing any searches while logged in..
- coldpie 12y agoI have had Search History disabled for years, but not forever. I use my Google account all over the place, including at work and on my Android phone. I downloaded the search archive and it contained the same "No Searches" HTML file and nothing else. It's impossible to know whether they actually store this data, but at least as far as their direct user-facing interfaces are concerned, Google does not track my search history.
- pdkl95 12y agoIt absolutely is option 'B'. While have always had search history disabled, I regularly see "targeted" results that is obviously based on past searches.
- gesman 12y agoThese are likely related to cookies stored within your browser locally. That's why I always search using Anon mode or obscure browser (such as IE) to get more or less unbiased results.
- pdkl95 12y agoWhat cookies? While I purge those regularly, I can guarantee this is not cookies, as topics I did I lot of searching on ~1.5 years ago clearly influence search results today... after erased my firefox profile just under a year ago. If we are talking other data that may be used for tracking, I do have a static IP. Besides, cookies don't store complex search histories. That would be stored on google's servers... which was the point (that search history is saved). I'd love to know how searches about unit testing with automake could be tailored from new client cookies to include results that are suspiciously similar to the many searches I made >1 year ago about Minecraft. edit: Oh, and regarding the amount of uniqueness being leaked by my browser, panopticlick currently reports my browser's fingerpoint only 14.14 bits.
- MichaelGG 12y agoHave you done a comparison on another IP/browser to verify this?
- sp332 12y agoGoogle still has to store your search queries in order to associate them with your cookie. That means that even if you delete the cookie, they still have your old searches stored. They just can't associate the old searches with your browser anymore.
- pavanky 12y agoThose are not the only options. It could be C) Google stores search history, but it is not associated with your Google ID.