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Sajakain

Google Chrome

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I've been encouraged to start using Google Chrome as my default web browser. The problem I seem to have with it though is the incapability of completely disabling the browsing history from storing search results, pages visited, etc. In Internet Explorer / Firefox you can do such things but it seems in Chrome you cannot. It's really annoying to type something into the address / search bar and have your history and bookmarks show up in a dropdown list simply because it matches a letter or two (I even disabled the showing of bookmarks in Firefox - it's that annoying to me lol).

Anyway.... I then come across posts like this concerning Google Chrome and it's browsing history and data it stores:

I think there's some confusion here about what turning search history off actually does.

It prevents the search history from being stored on your computer but Google still keeps the info in its servers.

Here's how it works: Whenever you make a search, Google still stores the exact search terms you used, the time you did it and maybe even what you clicked on its servers. So your search for "itchy rash, thighs, herpes" is logged on Google servers. It associates this info with your IP address and, under the new privacy policy, with your gmail address and your real name on Google +.

Google doesn't say much about how long it stores the info, but the latest info I can find says your search history is stored linked to your IP address for 18 months and after that it is "anonymized" by removing some digits of your IP address. After anonymization it might still be possible to link your search results to you based on geographical area, the remaining numbers in your IP address, search terms used, places you searched for on Google maps etc.

So bottom line, if you value the privacy of your search terms, Google is not a good option. Google is collecting a big, fat, unified dossier on you--everything you search, the videos you watch, key words in your email and if you use Google +, your friends, your age, your real name.

Not cool imo; but the real question is how do the other browsers (IE / Firefox) handle the exact same data? I have options in IE and Firefox to completely disable browsing history and such so one would presume that this data isn't stored on a server ... but is that really the case?

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Anyway... the overall reason for this thread is to get personal views and opinions on the matter of using Google Chrome as well as any tidbits of actual practices concerning privacy using Chrome. It's 0313 my time and if any of this seems like a derailed train I apologize.

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By my understanding of your quote, it's not Chrome that's the problem; it's Google itself. That means if you're concerned about such things, use Bing or another alternative. The Browser itself doesn't seem to enter into the equation there. Chrome can be set to use different search engines as default :)

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I love Google Chrome, and I think I know what you can do.

Go to chrome://settings/, at the bottom of the page there should be a link that says something like "Advanced Settings". You have a bunch of privacy settings there, including the one you want to disable.

If you connected Chrome with a Google Account, the search history is also saved in your account. I personally disabled this and you can do it I think somewhere on your account page. :)

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I love Google Chrome, and I think I know what you can do.

Go to chrome://settings/, at the bottom of the page there should be a link that says something like "Advanced Settings". You have a bunch of privacy settings there, including the one you want to disable.

If you connected Chrome with a Google Account, the search history is also saved in your account. I personally disabled this and you can do it I think somewhere on your account page. Posted Image

I found it; thanks! Wonderful setting, honestly.

]Use a prediction service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar

[/font]

So glad that can be disabled. Thanks!

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If you want to be ultra level paranoid download Tor (which runs a modified version of firefox), and use DuckDuckGo as your search engine.

Tor encrypts most aspects of your internet traffic and doesn't store any data locally, and DuckDuckGo also doesn't store your searches. You'll have 99.9% privacy, I don't even think the NSA would be able to track you unless they were specifically targeting you, but then you have bigger problems, and we never had this conversation.

Tor is also useful if you ever find yourself in China and need to break through the government firewall.

Edited by Storm

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