Thankfully, you can turn off Google search history. Here’s how to do it —
- Click on Web and app activity on the My Activity Page or go directly to the Activity Controls page.
- Toggle off Web and app activity.
- Click on Pause in the Pause Web & App Activity confirmation prompt.
TIP: Have you ever wondered how Google knows about your queries even though you have deleted your Chrome browsing history? That’s because the “Include Chrome history and other activity…” option under Web and app activity is on by default. If you untick it, your Google Chrome browsing history won’t be synced with your Google account anymore.
Instead of turning off the Web and App Activity, you also have the option to set it to auto-deletion of activity. In my opinion, this is the best bet if you care about both Google’s personalized results and your privacy.
While you are on the Activity Controls, you can also turn the toggle off for YouTube search history, location history, and Ad personalization.
What else can you do?
We all know that Google data tracking runs deep. Even if you remove the search history from Google services, chances are Google might still be able to track you. That’s because it’s Google! Also, you would still be running Android (owned by Google) and you would still run your Google account.
On the brighter side, consider clearing your Google search history as your first step in getting rid of Google. And over time, you can switch to Google products’ alternatives and maybe one day remove your Google account altogether.
