Posted by One of the features provided to users by Google service is a record of all user activities in different Google services which you can check if you need and have a record of your online activities. If you don’t like this report to be saved on Google continue reading to find out how to erase digital footprint…
Google searches, visited websites, watched online videos in YouTube and many other things are available at these reports and if you would like, you can erase all of them to keep your privacy.
- Go to Google.com
- Click on Sign in on the top right side and enter your Google account (Gmail) user name and password
- Click on Profile Icon on the top right side, then select My Account
- Go to Personal info & Privacy and click on Manage your Google activity
- On the new page, find My Activity section and click on GO TO MY ACTIVITY
You’ll have access to the list of your activities in different Google services opened in a new page. By clicking the Menu icon (which is available on the top right side of each section) and choosing Delete, start erasing process for each section one by one. Also, you can choose Date or Google service by choosing filter by date and product and after the results are shown, click on Menu icon in search tab and delete all report results by choosing Delete Results.
Finally, if you want to delete ALL of your Google activities, on the main page of reports, click on Menu icon (on the left from your profile icon) and choose Delete Activity By then select All Time in the date section and by clicking on Delete, all of you Google activities will be deleted.
Did you enjoy?! Feel free to share your opinion in comments!
Image courtesy of mshcdn
Hey Ali,
Great article, I have no doubt that many readers will find your guide quite useful, I certainly did.
I was trying to delete my Google activity report a few years ago and this post would come really handy back then. Right now my situation is a bit different – I’m a website owner. Do you happen to know if there are any consequences if you delete your activities, while you have your Google account connected to your website?
Thanks,
JT
Hi JT and thanks for your comment. There’s no any negative effect if you delete your online activity while your Google account is connected to your website since Google saves your account info somewhere else and it won’t be deleted with the method that I’ve mentioned above.
Best,
Ali
I was wondering what the potential harms from having a digital footprint could be. Are we deleting the data so third-parties can’t see where we’ve been, or just Google? Obviously it is beneficial to manage some security on the web, but what are the immediate consequences? This could be potentially helpful information for everyone getting online.
Dear Kfan, thanks for your comment. In my opinion big companies like Google CAN find your online activities if they want. For example you probably have a gmail account or you search many things in Google to find your needed information every day. All these activities let them have access to our online activities but they also respect our privacy policy. That’s why they became popular all around the web.
There’s not any consequences if you erase your digital footprint with google service. It’s just an available option which many people don’t know about it.
Best,
Ali
It’s kind of scary knowing that everything we do and share online is somewhat stored somewhere, even when we think we have erased it. I was aware Google kept our info somehow but I wasn’t aware we could request Google to stop tracking or erase our activity.
Thank you for sharing this info, I will certainly share this with friends and family.
Thank you too Lee and happy to see that it was useful for you )
Wow…I had no idea Google was really tracking everything I’ve been doing online and watching. I shouldn’t be surprised but it’s not just data from one account it’s things from my phone and at least three different computers that I used while logged into my Google Account. I understand that it’s helpful to find things you’re interested in but for me I’d like to be able to clear it out every once in a while so thank you for this! I definitely found it eye opening and useful!
-Jessica
Dear Jessica,
Thank you for your comment )
Nice to see that it was useful for you and hope you’ll enjoy other How To’s articles )
Best,
Ali