Strange question but according to their privacy policy it all changes from 1.3.12 Apparently pausing your history prevents them jumping to conclusions about you based on your search requests.

eh?

Yup

oh yes indeed

How on earth do I do that then?
Thicky here.

See how I googled that for you?

Click pause

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/320137

Though I had to turn mine on before I could delete it (it said it was empty before I started) – I presume that was the right thing to do, as otherwise google would turn it on anyway?

yes did i do it in time if id id it at midnight 00:00?
nice link aracer cheers

cobblers, too late 🙁

Are you though?

It’s still the 29th in America.

I’ve just changed mine.

Just seen this – and discovered my web history has been paused for ages – zero web history to delete! I think we’re talking *years* since I disabled the history…

Can someone explain to me why it matters? Ta.

still possible, must be on US time

Who cares?

I don’t seem to have the option to delete history but I get two buttons. One to turn it on and one saying no thanks. Does that mean I was cunning with the setting without knowing it at some point in the past?

I’m guessing here, but after you have deleted or paused it. Won’t it just begin gathering that same info from today?

Well I just paused it…not that I think I’d notice if I left it running. I don’t know if I came inside the deadline?

I don’t have an account,do I have a problem?Other than being a Luddite,I mean.

why does it matter?

Just done it now. Think there’s probably still an hour or so as it’s 11pm in LA.

Anyway. As to why you might care? I dunno, say you had some of the symptoms of a horrible illness, and as most people do, you google them. Google could then start targetting your computer with, say ads for say, HIV medicines etc.

A.N Other might use your PC, see that Google thinks you’ve got the AIDS and all of a sudden half your mates think you’ve got AIDS…

Might sound a bit far fetched, but bear in mind that Target in the US have worked out that when women start buying body butter and vitamins out of the blue, they’re probably pregnant. So they start sending out flyers for nappies etc. Which is all well and good if you’re happy with everyone knowing that you’re pregnant…

What if you’re pregnant or have AIDS though? Tinfoil hat time, folks! Do you know we never the moon too?

That’s only if you have a google account though isn’t it??? I’ve never signed up so it can’t do this?? Might be interesting though gives me ideas for Mrs W’a birthday and Christmas presents!! 🙂

Or Glitter Gary, you’re 100% you won’t ever have anything you wouldn’t want to slip out. Search for a new job at home, sign into google at work, and you could be getting lots of targetted ads for new jobs.

The problem is that it’s very difficult to envisage every possible piece of information you might at some point not want to disclose, and very difficult to envisage how it might be used in future.

Why sign in to Google though? Simple, just dont sign in. Or use msn search. Can this thread be added to the First World Problems thread, please mods?

Or why not just clear your history and not have to worry about whether you’ve signed in or out of Google…

I don’t think its just ‘Google search’ though, is it. If you have accounts with Youtube, Blogger, Picassa, Android, Sketch-up, its all one and the same.

Hate for google (or anyone) to know I like girls, bikes & drawing.

http://zapatopi.net/afdb/afdbdiagram.pdf

Deflects all anti privacy rays as well as mind control lasers

For the paranoiacs 😉

http://www.eclectech.co.uk/mindcontrol.php

Funny how those most fearful of “being seen” seem to be those who spend most time online 😆

Can anyone recommend a good search engine then that isn’t google and that is at least quite good?

So what this is all about is, if I don’t change my settings, Google will send me adverts I might be interested in rather than generic ones?

Has anyone written to the Queen about it yet?

Just cleared mine.

Hate for google (or anyone) to know I like girls, bikes & drawing.

We already know you like drawing girls on bikes.

I just completely ddeleted my google account – simple

Can anyone recommend a good search engine then that isn’t google and that is at least quite good?

DuckDuckGo.

I simply don’t like the idea of a corporate body tracking and profiling me for their own profits.

Just can’t motivated by this. I’m sure there are other sneaky things they will do with my info I can’t think of right now but if I must have ads they might as well be appropriate- even if that is ferret interference or whatever I last looked up.

That’s weaselly changed though.

I simply don’t like the idea of a corporate body tracking and profiling me for their own profits.

Don’t use the internet then!

Pretty much every company who sells on the internet or who offers anything for free is tracking you.

If you don’t use Google what else are you going to use – Bing? Hotmail? Yahoo? All of these track you in some way.

Given I’ve got an android phone, and would rather have adverts that matter to me and not generic ones…

I’m more concerned about them getting the data right (and me knowing about it), than actually holding/using the data.

If you don’t use Google what else are you going to use – Bing? Hotmail? Yahoo? All of these track you in some way.

DuckDuckGo.
They don’t track you.
That’s for the high volume of searching I do, everything else is either provided by myself for the public domain (eg, this post) or collected in a non-transparent way. I don’t mind some things, but helping a large company isn’t my cup of tea.