Three simple steps to delete your Google browsing history... before it's too late

[Anubis]

What do you like about them? I'm eying Lavabit due to the server side encryption, and the prices are decent(lower than fastmail), but I'm willing to reevaluate.

the fact that ive never had an issue for 6 years easy to setup and configure with email clients, can log in securely from anywhere, the web interface is simple but it works great, spam filtering works well. it was one of the first ones out there, not sure what else existed when i started using it, yea it has less space then lavabit but i really dont need 8 gigs of email space

 

[yh125d]

Another method to probably delete the whole history is this:

Go to https://www.google.com/

Click on the arrow next to your google account name and click on account settings

At the bottom of the "Services" section, click on "Visit the previous version of the Google accounts screen."

First, click on the Dashboard "View data stored with this account", there's loads of settings available here for you to tweak for privacy as well. Make changes as you wish, and go back 1 page

Next to My Products, click "Edit"

If you have a web history still after the first method (which I did), there will be a link to remove web history. If there isnt a link like that, then yours has been successfully removed (presumably)

 

[coldmeat]

It only seems to have remembered one search every week or so for the last 3 years.

I don't care about them storing that info, but it was interesting to see some of my searches from 2008.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

As far as I'm concerned the only person that needs to know what I'm doing is me.

Fuck Google.

 

[Gibson486]

fastmail

they have both free and paid levels of service, i pay for the full one

http://fastmail.fm/

Looks good (as well as the other one that was linked by lxskllr). I think i am going to start paying once I get a better paying job (been doing contract work and it sucks). I loved gmail when it first came out, but it is just bloated now and it seems they keep making these minor changes that just piss me off. Seems like the only way to get what I want is to pay for it.

 

[lxskllr]

Looks good (as well as the other one that was linked by lxskllr). I think i am going to start paying once I get a better paying job (been doing contract work and it sucks). I loved gmail when it first came out, but it is just bloated now and it seems they keep making these minor changes that just piss me off. Seems like the only way to get what I want is to pay for it.

I just signed up for a basic Lavabit account. That doesn't give me the features I'm looking for, but I'll be able to try it out gratis to see how I like them, and can upgrade later.

The basic account has the lowest features, but no advertising. You can get a little bit more if you accept ads.

https://lavabit.com/personal_e_mail.html

 

[Baked]

Looks like I never had it on in the 1st place.

 

[jhansman]

Good to know, but, as our authorities constantly remind us, if you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide. That is correct, isn't it?

 

[FoBoT]

make sure you remove the DNS Servers entries from your IP stack or else the people running those DNS servers will be able to log all your name requests :twisted:

 

[njdevilsfan87]

One of my accounts went back to 2007. The others didn't have this turned on. It was interested to see what I was browsing back then. Thanks OP.

 

[MotionMan]

Good to know, but, as our authorities constantly remind us, if you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide. That is correct, isn't it?

Apples and oranges.

I do not mind the government checking to see if people have done or are planning things that are illegal.

I do mind a private company using my browsing history in any way they see fit, including publishing it publicly.

MotionMan

 

[Red Squirrel]

make sure you remove the DNS Servers entries from your IP stack or else the people running those DNS servers will be able to log all your name requests :twisted:

Good point, I think my DNS server actually forwards to google, going to check that now... really best bet is to probably just forward to the root DNS servers, or opendns.

Apples and oranges.

I do not mind the government checking to see if people have done or are planning things that are illegal.

I do mind a private company using my browsing history in any way they see fit, including publishing it publicly.

MotionMan

Pretty much this.

 

[Balt]

Thanks, OP.

 

[Analog]

I logged in, the history was already turned off, I turned it on just to see what the buzz was about, now I can't turn it off, I can only "pause" it. WTF?

Sometimes when you mess with the bull, you get the horn...

 

[ImpulsE69]

This is why I just steal wifi from the neighbors. Plausible deniability.

 

[FoBoT]

... or opendns.



Pretty much this.

because opendns won't do something with the info but google will?

 

[Red Squirrel]

because opendns won't do something with the info but google will?

Google is admitting it more openly. That means they must be doing something even worse. Companies always "1 up" what their privacy policy says.

I could also just use the root DNS servers, but those are run by the government, so I have to pick my poison. Do I rather the government easily seeing every site I go to, or do I rather an open source based company? I could also forward to my ISP but their DNS servers are slow.

I could also forward to my online DNS server then set that one to use the root servers, and make it public, so any traffic originating from it does not necessarily mean it's mine. You can't stop yourself from being tracked 100%, but when you KNOW a company is tracking your every move, it's a good move to at least avoid that particular company, you can at least hope the alternative one is not doing the same. Can never be 100% sure though.

 

[lxskllr]

Some people are looking at p2p dns. I haven't been following it closely, but I think that's a good idea. Aside from the privacy issues, it helps circumvent rogue nations(like the USA) dicking with the infrastructure.