How to delete your Google search history

It might know you better than you know yourself. It knows every smartphone you’ve thought about buying, video you’ve watched on YouTube, every embarrassing ailment you’ve suffered. It’s your Google Activity (formerly known as Google Web & App History) and, unless you’ve deleted your search history, it knows everything you’ve searched for dating back to 2005.

Google uses all this data to construct a profile about you, including your age, gender, languages, and interests, and filters search results and ads for you based on your profile. Might be  clever, but this is also an incredible loss of your privacy.

This post will teach you how to permanently delete your Google history.

Warning: If you use G Suite (formerly Google Apps for Work) at your job, it is vital that you find out your company’s acceptable use and data retention policies before you delete anything!

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Jump to…

How to first download your Google search history
How to delete all your Google activity
How to set auto-delete for Google activity
How to stop Google from saving your search history or activity in the future
How to delete your browser search history on a computer
How to delete your browser search history on a mobile
Delete individual items in your browsing history
Delete your Google Maps search history
What happens when you delete and disable your Google search history
Do more to stay private as you browse

How to first download your Google search history

Google’s Takeout feature lets you download data from all of the Google products you use, including your Google Search history, Gmail, Calendar, Chrome, Google Photos, Maps, and more. Here’s how to use Takeout to download all your Google data.

1. Go to the Google Takeout “Download your data” page and select the data you’d like to download. By default, all of the boxes are selected. Select Next step.

2. Choose where you want to save your files, whether you want to set your account to export files regularly or just once, file type, and file size. Then select Create export. Google will put together the files you’ve requested, a process that could take a few minutes to a few days.

3. Google will send you an email once the exporting is complete with a link to view your archive.

Now that you’ve downloaded an archive of your data, you’re ready to delete your history.

How to delete all your Google activity

Use these steps to delete data about all your Google activity, including your searches, video searches, and any ads you’ve clicked on across all your devices.

Delete your Google activity on your computer

1. Go to the My Activity page, select Delete activity by on the left-hand menu.

2. You can choose how far back you want to delete your Google search history and activity. Select All time from the range of options to delete everything.

3. Choose which Google services to delete your search history and activity from. Click the Select all option or specify the services, then click Next.

4. Google will ask you if you want to confirm that you would like to delete your activity. Select Delete.

5. Your screen should now say “Deletion complete.” Click OK.

Delete your Google search history and activity on your mobile device

1. On your Android or iOS device, go to myactivity.google.com on a browser.
2. Tap Menu > Delete activity by.
3. Below “Delete Activity” tap All time.
4. When asked which services to delete your activity from, make sure the Select All box is ticked.
5. Tap Next > Delete.

How to set auto-delete for Google activity

You can have some of your Google activity deleted automatically after a set time period. This ensures your history is cleared while still offering the convenience of keeping it for a short time to help you find what you’ve looked at recently.

1. Go to myactivity.google.com
2. At the left, select Data & privacy.
3. Under History settings, select an activity or history setting you want to auto-delete.

4. Select Auto-delete.

5. Using the drop-down menu, choose how long you want to keep your activity before deletion > Next > Confirm to save your choice.

How to stop Google from saving your search history and activity in the future

Google doesn’t provide a way to permanently disable it from saving your activity, but you can hit pause. Use these steps to hit pause on Google saving your activity.

1. Go to the My Google Activity page.
2. Select a section, like Web & App Activity. If a section is “Off,” your activity is already not being saved and you don’t have to do anything.

3. Select Turn off. Choose Turn off in the drop-down menu. You may also choose to Turn off and delete activity if you haven’t deleted your activity yet.

4. You’ll be shown a screen informing you that new activity won’t be saved to your account, but Google still uses other methods to personalize your experience. Select Got it.

How to delete your Safari search history

Even after clearing your Google history, your browsing activity could still be saved on your computer. If you don’t want anyone who has access to your computer snooping on what you’ve been browsing, clear your browser history, too.

Delete your search history in Safari

1. In a Safari browser, navigate to the taskbar at the top of the screen, and click History.
2. In the drop-down menu, click Clear History at the bottom.
3. You can select the date range for stored Google searches to delete. To clear your entire browser search history, select all history, then click Clear History.

How to delete your search history in Firefox

1. Open a Firefox browser, navigate to the taskbar at the top of the screen, and click History… 
2. In the drop-down menu, click Clear Recent History… 
3. In Time range to clear:, select Everything. 
4. To clear your entire browser search history, tick the appropriate box, as well as the boxes for any other information you want to clear from your history.  
5. Click Clear Now. 

Delete your search history in Chrome and Chromium

1. In a Chrome browser, click the three vertical dots (⋮) in the top-right of the screen. 
2. In the drop-down menu, click Settings. 
3. Scroll down to Privacy and security, click Clear browsing data.
4. From the time range drop-down menu, select All time. Tick the box for Browsing history, and any other information you want to clear. 
5. Click Clear data.

Delete your search history in Brave

1. In a Brave browser, click the three horizontal lines (≡) in the top-right of the screen. 
2. In the drop-down menu, click Settings. 
3. Scroll down to Privacy and security, click Clear browsing data.
4. From the time range drop-down menu, select All time. Tick the box for Browsing history, and any other information you want to clear. 
5. Click Clear data.

How to delete your browser search history on a phone or tablet

How to delete your Safari search history on an iPhone or iPad

1. Open Settings, scroll down and tap Safari.
2. Scroll down and tap Clear History and Website Data. The setting should turn gray once your browser search history, cookies, and cache have been deleted. 

How to delete your Chrome search history on an iPhone or iPad

1. In a Chrome browser, tap the menu button (≡) at the bottom of the screen (on iPad, the menu will be at the top right).
2. Tap More and then History from the bottom panel.
3. Tap Edit 
4. Select the entries you wish to delete
5. Tap Delete
6. Tap Done

How to delete your search history on an Android device

1. In a Chrome browser, click the three vertical dots (⋮) in the top-right of the screen. 
2. Depending on what you see in the drop-down menu:
   1. tap More if you don’t see History OR
   2. tap History
3. Tap Clear browsing data.
4. From the time range drop-down menu, select All time. Tick the box for Browsing history, and any other information you want to clear. 
5. Click Clear data.

How to delete individual items in your browsing history

Each browser is slightly different, but you can choose which items to delete and which to save. In general, browsers have a History page that lets you select specific browsing activity followed by a delete button, rather than choosing to clear all data.

As an example, for Chrome:

1. Click the three vertical dots (⋮) in the top-right of the screen. 
2. In the drop-down menu, click Settings. 
3. Click History, then select History again.
4. Choose the specific items you’d like to delete
5. Hit Delete at the top right of the page.

How to delete your Google Maps search history

To see your Maps history before you delete your search history, follow the steps below.

1. On your Android or iOS device, open the Google Maps app (or just Maps) and sign in.
2. Tap your profile picture > Settings > Maps history.

On your computer

1. Open Google Maps and sign in.
2. Click ☰ in the search bar > Maps activity.
3. To delete individual items: Next to the entries you want to delete, click Remove.
4. To delete a group of items: On the right, click Delete. You can specify to delete based on a date range or specific dates, as well as all activity.

On your mobile device

1. On your Android or iOS device, open the Google Maps app and sign in.
2. Tap your profile picture > Your data in Maps > Web & App Activity: See & delete activity.
3. To delete individual items: Next to the entries you want to delete, click Remove.
4. To delete a group of items: On the right, click Delete. You can specify to delete based on a date range or specific dates, as well as all activity.

What happens when you delete and disable your Google search history?

It’s important to understand the consequences of clearing your Google search history.

By default, Google personalizes your search results based on your search activity. So if you’ve clicked in certain websites and certain types of content more than others, Google will start ranking that content higher in its search results for you.

If you delete and disable your Google search history, then your returning search results will be broader and less specific to you. Many people prefer not to receive personalized search results, because they want more diverse information, not just ones the algorithm thinks they’re interested in. It’s also creepy to be tracked, of course.

How to stay private while browsing the internet

Deleting your Google search history is a great first step. Now if you really want to step up your internet privacy game, here are more steps you can take:

1. Use a privacy-focused search engine. Instead of Google, choose a search engine that won’t track you, such as DuckDuckGo.
2. Use a privacy-focused browser. Chrome is popular but it’s owned by Google and does its best to track you. Some of the best private browsers are Firefox and Brave.
3. Download a VPN app. ExpressVPN hides your real IP address from websites you visit. It also encrypts your activity, keeping it private from your internet service provider and other snoops.

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