If you haven’t heard, Google is updating their privacy policy. You have until March 1st to clear out your previous browser history before all bets are off and they own it. Forever.
I’m not talking about your local browser cache on your computer. I’m talking about Google’s massive database of browsing history. Because, they’ve been tracking everything you do and saving it for a rainy day. It’s time to break out your galoshes.
In a highly controversial move, Google announced that it’s changing it’s privacy policy to allow it to collect, store and use your personal search history data for its own purposes. And it’s extending that policy to cover the entirety of the search history it has already been collecting. It plans to leverage this information across all of it’s properties (e.g. YouTube, GMail etc.) and not just on the Google search engine itself.
This data will not be held anonymously – it will now be tied directly back to you. In perpetuity. The things that you do anonymously today will, in the future, be directly associated with your name, email address and/or phone number. For example, private details sent in email can crop up later in Google Maps searches. Imagine an off-color video viewed on YouTube informing your search results a week later at a client meeting when trying to demo an unrelated business application.
You can turn this off (opt out) and pause Google from continuing to collect your private browsing history. Follow these steps:
1. Go to Google.com and log into your Google Account.
2. Next, go to https://www.google.com/history
3. Click “Remove all Web History”
4. Click OK
Doing this will not only clear out your browser history, but it will automatically “pause” Google from collecting and storing your history over the long term. To be clear, they will still collect record of your actions, but it will be anonymized and not tied back to you personally, but just used in aggregate with other users to inform general trends and analytics.
Years ago when I heard Google touting their mantra as “Don’t Be Evil” I thought it was cute and clever, and I was hopeful. But I was also extremely cynical. I knew that if they grew enough, the day would eventually come when the growth slows, competition heats up, the suits take over, and pressure to perform (financially) starts to mount. These things have a way of changing.
To mix metaphors, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” So much for “Don’t Be Evil.”
