Many people are not aware of Google's recent changes to its privacy policy and the impact it will have on individual user accounts. Recent articles in trade magazines and blogs point out several important things to consider and actions which need to be taken prior to March 1, 2012.
In his February 24, 2012 article in Digital Journal, John Thomas Didymus states, "After the policy takes effect you are not allowed to opt out without abandoning Google altogether. But now before the policy takes effect, you have the option of deleting your Google Web History by modifying your settings so that Google is unable to associate data collected about you with your Gmail or YouTube accounts."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a privacy advocacy group, suggests the following actions to prevent your previous Google history from being public. It is the EFF's recommendation that Google users delete their Web history. Below is a summary of steps for doing so, detailed further in the article:
- Sign in to your account at Google.com
- Use the dropdown menu in the upper right-hand corner (under your name) and access your settings. This takes you to your account's overview page.
- In the Services section, click the link "View, enable, or disable web history." If you choose, you can remove all of your Web history or choose selected items. If you disable Web History it will remain turned off. You can turn it on again at any time.
Important information is available at the following sites:
http://www.technewsdaily.com/3850-remove-google-browsing-history-late.html
