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Google Businesses Privacy

Google Adds Feature To Zap Recent Search History in Privacy Push (bloomberg.com) 32

Posted by msmash from the for-what-it-is-worth dept.
Ever wish you could delete the last thing you searched for on Google? Now Google will let you. From a report: Google announced the new feature Tuesday during its I/O software conference, part of a package of privacy controls the Alphabet company is pushing out to appease consumers and regulators. Users now can tap on a tab inside their Google accounts to remove the last fifteen minutes of search history. The company has offered a feature to clear search histories, but people have found that data useful for tools like Maps or been unaware of the ability to delete it. The new ways to give people more privacy controls come after years of scrutiny on the search giant's behavior. "We never sell your personal information to anyone," Jen Fitzpatrick, a Google senior vice president, said at the virtual event. "It's simply off limits."
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Google Adds Feature To Zap Recent Search History in Privacy Push More

Google Adds Feature To Zap Recent Search History in Privacy Push

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  • Ever wish you could delete the last thing you searched for on Google? Now Google will let you.

    Donkey lovers, rejoice.

  • Google Privacy Push haha lolol hahaha (Score:4, Insightful)

    by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 ) on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @04:35PM (#61397946)
    Right that is rich!

  • ...when I launch FireFox, and the clear it again before I close. Maybe overkill, but just because I'm paranoid does not mean they aren't out to get me B-)

    • ...when I launch FireFox, and the clear it again before I close. Maybe overkill, but just because I'm paranoid does not mean they aren't out to get me B-)

      Install script blockers as well.

    • Yup. Firefox to browse configured to clear cookies on close, not use pocket, and not run javascript in PDFs.
      DuckDuckGo to search the web, Fastmail.com for email, Linux for your PC, and a dumbphone, pinephone, or Librem 5 as your mobile device.

      It's not perfect privacy, but it actually is pretty good. And totally affordable.

  • Once again (Score:4, Informative)

    by theskipper ( 461997 ) on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @04:45PM (#61397978)

    "We don't sell your personal information" != "We don't expose/leak your personal information"

    https://www.eff.org/id/deeplin... [eff.org]

    • There's nothing personal about a bunch of keywords and a generalised location tied to a hexadecimal identifier. Google exposes / leaks generalised information about it's product (you), it does not do anything with your personal information.

      The EFF should stick to fighting actual concerns that people can get behind.

      • There's nothing personal about a bunch of keywords and a generalised location tied to a hexadecimal identifier.

        I can't tell when people are joking and when they are being serious.

        • Well if you want to tell me your random Google advertiser ID so we can link the data to you specifically then we can have ourselves a bit of a privacy debate. But until then your privacy is equally affected by this statement: "Some dude in the USA likes IT and is shopping for buttplugs, let me know if you want me to send that guy an advert.

          • If only it were that simple. In reality, it's closer to "some dude in this 1 mile square like a IT, dogs, cars, craft beer, is married to a 36 year old woman named Carly and is buying buttplugs".

  • what better way than to collate what a user doesn't want you to know, than to collect it and have it tagged by the user.

  • If you make it harder to get direct data on users, then you make the aggregate server-side data you're gathering more valuable.

    Which is fair, I'd say - to lock more companies out of easy access to direct user data. Not the worst outcome, at least.

    Ryan Fenton

  • I'm pretty sure this functionality has existed for some time in My Activity, along with all your Google related activity. It's something I recommend the average person clear on the monthly, because more then a month back you'll have very little you need to keep, maybe apart from YouTube searches and what you've watched, just to keep your recommendations slightly relevant.

    I don't use Google Search, mostly because it's not any better then DuckDuckGO, but if you turn the Web Activity feature off in My Activ
  • I haven't needed google search for years. I'll use it if I want to find trash results like mugshots and personal info of individuals on nefarious public information aggregation farms
  • between your PC and the destination website didnt have a copy logged of every URL you ever visited,

    you're only hiding it from yourself

  • Users now can tap on a tab inside their Google accounts to remove the last fifteen minutes of search history.

    Waiting for the inevitable Chrome plugins that will auto-click that link every 15 minutes.

  • My text to speech headline reader made me think Google ads in one of those eye-rolling moments

  • We never sell your personal information to anyone

    Yeah, cause you fucking don't need too and would be the assholes who would (and prolly do) buy it from others.

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