Google
will change its privacy policy on 1 March. From this date on, Google will be
able to combine your information from Google+, Gmail and YouTube.
Before 1
March, the browser history of Google+,
Gmail and YouTube were separated. Criticizers of the new policy argue that this
information should stay separated, because the search history could contain private
content. If the information of the three sites will be combined, Google will
built a permanent profile of you including your age, gender, religion, health,
hobbies and location.
The site’s Mat Honan wrote: ‘It means that things you could do in
relative anonymity today, will be explicitly associated with your name, your
face, your phone number. 'If you use Google's services, you have to agree to
this new privacy policy. It is an explicit reversal of its previous policies.’
If you want to stymie Google from building this permanent profile, you can delete your browsing history. It will limit your information on Google’s services.
Three simple steps to do it:
1.
Go to the Google homepage
and sign into your account. Use the dropdown menu under your name in the upper
right-hand corner to access your settings. Click on 'account settings'.
2. Find the section called 'Services' and you'll see a
link to 'View, enable, or disable web history', shown in the red box below.
Click on it.
3. You can remove all of your search details by clicking
on 'Remove Web History', shown in the red box below. Once you have done this
your history will remain disabled until you turn it back on.
