Start Your Year With a Digital Cleanse

1/16/2018 (Permalink)

1. Erase your Google search history

Google’s mission is to know everything, so few are surprised that the world’s most famous search engine keeps close records of your browsing history. This might seem harmless at first: Your computer remembers the websites you visit, so it’s easier to access them later on, right? What’s the big deal?

2. Erase your Facebook search history

Would you believe that Facebook keeps the same kind of records at Google? If anything, Facebook’s data is even more personal, such as clubs and pastimes, because of the tidbits we share with our social network.

Facebook also mines when you’ve looked up an ex or a neighbor. If someone accesses your account, even by accident, that information is fully available.

3. Use covert search engines

Google has hundreds of millions of users around the world, and the company’s name has become synonymous with “finding information.” But remember, you don’t have to use Google, and as handy as the service is, there are other ways to navigate around the web.