4

I understand they can access my searches when I'm logged in, and of course know the search terms I use, but how can I prevent them to logging searches to my account when:

  • I'm not logged in
  • and in private mode
  • my account has search history turned off already (updated thanks to Izzy's answer)

I'm on Nexus One with CyanogenMod 7, using stock browser with no patches or add-ons.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. open browser
  2. enable private mode
  3. clear all cookies
  4. search for "asdf unique search"
  5. close tab
  6. clear all cookies/history/cache
  7. exit private mode
  8. close browser
  9. open Google search
  10. type "a"

Expected behaviour: Google knows nothing of my search
What happens: it autocompletes "asdf unique search"

Also, all my Google Accounts on this phone have history.google.com turned off.

Is there any way to stop this happening?

Andrew T.
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gcb
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  • What browser are you using? – znewman Apr 02 '13 at 17:33
  • Stock browser. package "Browser" v. 2.3.7 – gcb Apr 02 '13 at 18:15
  • How about Chrome and using Incognito mode? – ale Apr 23 '13 at 20:15
  • @AlEverett i will give it a try, but i can't see how chrome will be much different from the stock browser (in fact, for other things privacy related, it's even worse) Also, i think it still uses the same rendering engine the stock browser uses, doesn't it? – gcb Apr 24 '13 at 18:01
  • That's why I suggested incognito mode. "Pages you view in this tab won't appear in your browser history or search history, and they won't leave other traces, like cookies, on your mobile device after you close all incognito tabs." (Google support on incognito mode) – ale Apr 24 '13 at 18:11
  • @AlEverett i'm already using incognito on the stock browser. they don't appear on my history nor the google webhistory. What i think is happening is that the OS has url activity registered to google.com searchs and it sends the activity to the search app or something. it's invisible to the end user (me) but it sure does get registered in the search app. – gcb Apr 24 '13 at 21:49
  • The Android Browser doesn't have incognito mode. You must be using Chrome, then. – ale Apr 25 '13 at 12:47
  • @AlEverett i'm not sure it has one with the stock image, but using stock on a nexus device is just silly :) i mentioned on the question i'm using the cyanogenmod7 image. I think the incognito (or maybe the whole browser) is backported from newer stock images. – gcb Apr 25 '13 at 16:57
  • @AlE. btw, i tried chrome, same happens. Then i uninstalled it because the phone only have some 200Mb of app space. – gcb Jan 21 '14 at 21:18

2 Answers2

2

Use Firefox.

This is how I solved the problem. Using Firefox and another search provider (DuckDuckGo or Yahoo, etc.), I can be sure that incognito mode works as intended.

Andrew T.
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gcb
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2

First, you can delete your search history:

  1. Visit your Web History page at https://www.google.com/history or click the gear icon gear icon on the upper right corner of a search results page, and go to Web History.
  2. Click the gear icon gear icon again on the upper corner of the Web History page, and go to Settings.
  3. Click the delete all link.
  4. Click the Delete all button to confirm.

Next, you can turn off your Web History completely (same source):

  1. Visit your Web History page at https://www.google.com/history or click the gear icon gear icon on the upper right corner of a search results page, and go to Web History.
  2. Click the gear icon gear icon again on the upper corner of the Web History page, and go to Settings.
  3. Click the Turn off button next to "Web History is on." To start keeping track of your web search activity again, click the Turn on button.

So now you have deleted all past sources, and prevented new ones from being created. Hopefully.

Further, Turn off search history personalization gives you details on how to opt-out of "Signed in searches" and "Signed out searches". For the latter:

  1. Visit google.com/history/optout when not signed in to a Google Account. (If you see the Google homepage, try visiting the link again.)
  2. On the resulting page, click Disable customizations based on search activity. (Because this preference is stored in a cookie, it'll affect anyone else who uses the same browser and computer as you).

Further readings

Izzy
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  • odd, my account already have all that set. so, i'm thinking it's something internal to android browser + search app. – gcb Apr 24 '13 at 18:02
  • OK, so I should add the hints I obviously ommitted: Clear your browser cache and history :) Same for the search app (Settings->Apps->Manage Apps, scroll to the search app, "clear cache" and optionally "delete data"). But that's not the account (which you asked for), but the device. Should I update my answer with these details? – Izzy Apr 24 '13 at 18:26
  • so i have to clear my cache on both apps everytime i do a google search in incognito mode? – gcb Apr 25 '13 at 16:59
  • You can also use one of the history cleaners from google play, of course :) – Izzy Apr 25 '13 at 18:58