Google is letting users to download their entire search history.
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Though this is virtual data, imagine it tangible, every last thing you have ever searched for on Google, years and years of searches and now collected into tangible data. This could rise into a small mountain, or if laid across a flat surface, stretch for miles. It is not only the amount of it but the contents of it. It is about what have you been searching for and what can it reveal about you as a person.
Users can download their entire search history, dating to when they first logged in with an account on any device. The search history page also offers more insight into one’s search. It shows data on one’s top clicks, top queries and top sites. Google stresses that this data is only available to you and that there is no need to panic about your incendiary internet habits being exposed.
Read more: Having data is great, but you have to know to use it
To download one must visit your Web & App Activity page, and log in to their email. Here the history is available for view, with options to view at different times. The download can be triggered and offers the user to create an archive of their search history data. Once the download has been initiated, the archive will be emailed, an email confirmation with a link to the data when it is ready to be download from Google Drive.
Google warns that people should not download their archive on public computers and must ensure that their archive is always under their control as it contains sensitive data.
“Protect your account and sensitive data with 2-Step Verification; helping keep bad guys out, even if they have your password,” Google says “If you have decided to take your data elsewhere, please research the data export policies of your destination. Otherwise, if you ever want to leave the service, you may have to leave your data behind.”
Image: Raúl Ochoa.
