Google quietly brings its forget program to the U.S.

“If you are worried about your online privacy, it might be of interest to you that Google has quietly brought its Google forget program to the U.S.,” Evan Schuman writes for Computerworld.

“It has made it quite simple, for the most part,” Schuman writes. “Simply go to myactivity.google.com to see the history of your searches, YouTube viewing and everything else you do on Google platforms, and then be guided through the process of trimming that history.”

“But be careful. Privacy restrictions bring with them good and bad, and some consumers who become gung ho about deleting activity may find the usefulness of their web surfing drop off. Ads will become much more generic and annoying, as will searches and other web research,” Schuman writes. “But the process, even if you opt to not delete a thing, is eye-opening. Seeing every search you’ve performed and every site you’ve visited is a powerful wakeup call if you hadn’t realized how much is retained.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Happy cleaning!

Here’s what each of our Google accounts shows:

No activity.

These settings are not turned on
• Web & App Activity
• Voice & Audio Activity
• Device Information
• YouTube Watch History
• YouTube Search History

In short: FOAD, Google.

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Tim Cook gets privacy and encryption: We shouldn’t surrender them to Google – June 4, 2015
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The price you’ll pay for Google’s ‘free’ photo storage – June 3, 2015
Apple CEO Tim Cook champions privacy, blasts ‘so-called free services’ – June 3, 2015
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Why Apple’s Photos beats Google Photos, despite price and shortcomings – May 30, 2015
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Apple CEO Cook: Unlike some other companies, Apple won’t invade your right to privacy – March 2, 2015
Survey: People trust U.S. NSA more than Google – October 29, 2014
Edward Snowden’s privacy tips: ‘Get rid of Dropbox,” avoid Facebook and Google – October 13, 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook ups privacy to new level, takes direct swipe at Google – September 18, 2014
Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for government, police – even with search warrants – September 18, 2014
U.S. NSA watching, tracking phone users with Google Maps – January 28, 2014
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Google has already inserted some U.S. NSA code into Android – July 10, 2013
Court rules NSA doesn’t have to reveal its semi-secret relationship with Google – May 22, 2013