The Independent's journalism is supported by our readers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn commission.
Google keeps a complete list of almost everything you've looked at on the internet
Searches, web pages, YouTube videos and more are all hidden in the My Activity page
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Google could have a complete list of almost everything you've ever looked at.
The site collects information on your searches, browsing history, YouTube videos you've watched and more. But it can all be seen – and deleted – from one page.
Google's My Activity page includes all of those searches and pages.
The list will at least include every Google search you've ever done while signed in. But if you use Google Chrome, it will also include just about every website you've ever visited, all catalogued by date and time, and completely searchable.
The list can be quite helpful. All of the information is completely searchable, so if you remember just one part of a website's name or only the day you visited it, for instance, you can find it back out again.
Google collects the information in part so that it can be useful to you – jogging your memory, helping you find past websites, and learning more about you so that it can recommend more relevant things. But it is mostly so that Google can use that information for its ads, learning what you're into and what marketing is most likely to appeal.
So if that makes you worry, it's easy to turn the collection off. (You'll still get ads, they'll just be more generic.) That's done by heading to the Activity Controls page, and turning off the data collection.
The page is similar to Google's audio history page, which collects the recordings that your phone makes of you. Like the search results, the recordings are supposed to be useful – but you can easily stop them being stored from the same page.
And the company also keeps information on where its users have been. That too can be viewed on a handy timeline at the location history page, where it can also be turned off and deleted.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments