Want to Delete Google History? But Does It Really Make You Totally Free from Online Tracking and Monitoring?

Updated on July 13, 2021: From now on, traffic filtering, malware protection, and suspicious DNS activity blocking are available as a part of the separate DNS Firewall app.

Oh, Google. If you are one of those who are living in this century, then you most likely use its services that are developed to simplify our lives (from Google Maps to Gmail, to YouTube). Also, you are probably aware of the fact that if you have a relationship with the company at least once, it knows quite a lot about you.

Google can keep track of everything you’ve searched in the Google searching engine, persuading us that these measures are taken only for our convenience. Next time when you type keywords in the searching engine, the company will offer you personalized results, presenting the related or latest search requests.

If you don’t want the content you search in Google be available to others, but want to protect your online privacy and security, follow our guide on how to delete Google history permanently.

Steps to delete Google history

1. First, you will need to visit the Web and App History page.
2. Once there, click the (⋮) button in the top right corner.
3. A drop-down menu will appear. Click ‘Delete Activity By’.
4. A box will appear with the options for you to delete by topic or product, or delete by date. Go to the second option. Open it and choose ‘All Time’.
5. A box will pop up, cautioning you that “deleting Web and App activity may limit the products like Google Maps and Google Now from offering tailored results”. If you are not interested in personalized services (that actually are not always perfect), proceed to delete Google history.

However, it is important to know that this is a one-way process. Once this information is deleted, there is no way to restore it. Even Google itself does not have a technique to recover data which has been permanently deleted. So, be sure that this is something you want to do before proceeding.

Once the process is completed, you will see the Web and App History page again. This time, your activity file should say ‘No items to show’.

Pause or disable further logging

Are you still going to use Google products? But now without building up a new Google history? Fortunately, there is a way to stop Google from collecting your user data again. Here is the explanation how to do this:

1. Once again, you will need to go to the Google Web and App History page.
2. Click the (⋮) button in the top right corner of the screen.
3. The same drop-down menu will appear. Select the ‘Activity Controls’ option.
4. The Account controls page will appear. Find a section that contains various options with a switch to the right of each function. Slide the switch from one side to the other to turn necessary functions off.
5. A page asking you to confirm the action will appear.

Note, Google will temporarily store data while you are using their search engine. However, as soon as you finish that session, the relating data will disappear from your Google history.

You have the right to be forgotten

It is now clear that deleting and disabling your Google search history does not make you totally invisible. It just stops Google from keeping a record of what you use their services for. Yet, there are steps that you can take to make it as hard as possible for Google to see you online.

The most obvious of these steps is to stop using Google services altogether. It means that you have to delete your Gmail account, stop using Google Maps, and no more videos on YouTube. But in spite of the fact that there are alternative online services to use, Google is almost the most popular one, as it is among the best on the market. That is why to stop using Google services altogether will be an inconvenience for many internet users.

More secure and convenient solution

The hard truth is that it is difficult to make yourself totally invisible for the cyber space. There will always be some form of information left behind about you, unless you use a strong security tool, like VPN Unlimited. It is one of the most effective software you will ever invest in.

VPN Unlimited will encrypt all of your online activities, and hide your identity, allowing you to browse anonymously. This top-notch app will help you to get around other online issues such as state censorship and geo-restricted content as well.

VPN Unlimited is the best way to keep using Google, and be sure your privacy is strongly protected.

It is up to you which solution in this article suit you best. Just remember that it is truly possible to keep your online privacy secured, and surf the web anonymously, without letting Google know even about your existence.