Google Privacy, recording every search you make

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3Gstore_Matt

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If your concerned with your right to privacy Google has announced a new privacy policy that will take effect on March 1, 2012. They plan to bring 60 disparate privacy documents into one umbrella policy for targeted advertisements.

Of course, not everyone is going to be thrilled with having all their search history revealed because it could reveal identifying information about your location, sexual orientation, age interests, religion and health concerns.

You can find out how to disable this feature here - Google's New Privacy Policy Starts March 1

If you visit http://google.com/history after logging into your Google account you'll likely find every search you've ever made, unless you've previously turned the feature off!
 
Thanks Matt. That change was announced some time ago, but it's good to remind folks and bring it to the attention of folks who were not aware of it. I previously didn't see much of anything 'new', and the consolidation of all those separate policies makes it all a lot easier to understand.

This seems an appropriate time to remind folks of our privacy policy right here on The RV Forum. Our policy also links to the Google privacy policy.
 
If you don't have a Google account, do you still have to worry about this?  I have noticed that after doing a search I'll see ads related to the search item on other web pages for days afterward.
 
I believe Google tracks  search history, whether you have an account or not.  It's part of how their search engine finds matches tailored to your wants and needs. Google saves a lot of info via cookies, so you can flush that out if you feel the need.
 
Tracking cookies are not the same as the Google search history.  Cookies are stored on your computer while the Google search history is stored on the Google servers.  The only way to turn it off is through the Google dashboard, as far as I know, and that means you need a Google account.  Having an account makes a lot of valuable services available to you, so I see no reason not to have one.
 
I was busy composing a long answer, but Gary and Ned said it quite succinctly. Meanwhile, since I already typed it, an extract from what I was going to say:

Privacy is a concern whenever you visit any site on the internet. How much of a concern depends on the site and on your individual perspective. Things like your IP address will be recorded by just about any web server, usually along with other information. Whether the information can be tied to you personally is a function of what you provide &/or allow your PC to do.

What the site does with that information is another issue, and that's part of what a published privacy policy should explain.

Social networking has changed the game over recent years. Participants seem eager to put a lot of their personal stuff out there with little thought about where it might end up. At least one of the SN companies has shown that they can't be trusted with information that folks enter in their personal profile.

The Google Good to know page has some helpful information.

This Wiki on Internet privacy attempts to explain various aspects of the subject.
 
All good advise to the post.  From my perspective, why would anyone expect privacy once connected to the internet? There is a very old however very simple rule, don't type anything on your keyboard that you don't expect to be available on the net.. if you connect, it's that simple folks.  Also, if you connect to the internet, anything you have ever typed on your computer is open-game, just fact not hype.
 
Ned said:
Tracking cookies are not the same as the Google search history.  Cookies are stored on your computer while the Google search history is stored on the Google servers.  The only way to turn it off is through the Google dashboard, as far as I know, and that means you need a Google account.  Having an account makes a lot of valuable services available to you, so I see no reason not to have one.
Click to expand...

I opted out of of the Google search history some time ago. Just thought I'd through "Do Not Track Plus" out there in case someone may be interested.

My apologies for being off topic.
 
With the use of the so-called "super cookies" it's almost impossible to stop a web site from tracking you if they really want to.  About the only way to avoid all tracking is to use the Lynx browser, but you won't see much with it :)
 
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