You can unsee that: Search for something potentially risky online? You can quickly delete the last 15 minutes of your Google search history on Android. Open the Google app, tap on your profile icon in the top right, and select Delete last 15 minutes.
Shocker: Google is tracking you this secret way
Big Tech makes big money by tracking what you do online. You may have heard of tracking pixels, cookies and scripts. I bet you didn’t know that fonts can track you, too.
Google gives away special fonts for website owners to use. At last count, they’re installed on over 60 million websites.
Google says its free tracking fonts help websites load quickly and look the same across your iPhone, Android, Windows PC, Mac and tablet. That’s true, but nothing’s free. It comes at the price of your privacy.
Secret exposed
When you visit a site that uses Google Fonts, you automatically hand over to Google:
- Your IP address, aka your unique online identifier tied to your devices.
- Every webpage you visited and how long you spent there.
- The links you click on that page.
This gets lumped in with all the other data Google collects on you everywhere else. If you want to be shocked, these three creepy lists show everything Google knows about you.
What can you do about it?
Right now, only Firefox allows you to set your own font choice. That’s why software developer Jeff Johnson created a browser extension that does it for you.
StopTheFonts block fonts from sources like Google with built-in tracking codes. Right now, the extension is only available on Safari.
If you use Chrome, Edge or any other browser, your best bet is telling Google to forget your search history and activity. It’s not a perfect solution, but it beats not doing anything. Luckily, that’s easy to do, and you can set it up to happen automatically.
- Go to myaccount.google.com and log in.
- Click Data & privacy on the left side of the screen.
- In the History settings section, checkmarks are next to Web & App Activity, Location History and YouTube History. Click each one to adjust your settings. Toggle them off to stop further tracking if you want.
- On these pages, set up Auto-delete for future activity. Select every three months.
Erase these private details Google knows about you
Ever think about how much Google knows about you? You don’t have to wonder. Sign in to your Google account and check this page to see exactly what the search giant thinks you’re interested in.
It’s not just search. Your Gmail inbox, Google Drive files, Maps history, YouTube views and much more are added to the dossier of info on you. Here’s a buried Google Maps setting you should change right now.
Woman swallows AirPod, bad TikTok cancer tips & dating app shocker
Plus, Opera GX says it’ll clear your embarrassing search history — even if you’ve died. I give advice to Lance from Knoxville on how to move photos to a thumb drive without squishing the quality. X is now pushing subscriptions for tweets and runners ditch their GPS watches.
Not the sharpest hacker for sure: Back in January, the SEC’s X account was hacked to post fake news about bitcoin, causing its value to spike. Now, a man’s been arrested, and court docs show some pretty incriminating searches. One gem? “What are some signs the FBI is after you?” You’d think a hacker would know how to hide their search history.
Privacy tip: 5 ways you’re being tracked you must stop right now
Online privacy is an oxymoron. For example, an advertiser ID on your phone is supposed to keep your location anonymous. Are you surprised it doesn’t? Me neither. Tap or click here for steps to see and remove your advertiser ID.
10 iPhone tricks I use every day, and you will, too
Your phone can do more than you realize, but no one points out the countless hidden settings and features when you buy it. Sometimes, you realize you don’t know how to do something simple until you need it. Tap or click for steps to record your iPhone screen.
Can’t trust ’em: Meta and Google secretly teamed up to target kids with ads for Instagram on YouTube. They exploited a loophole allowing personalized ads to be served to an “unknown” group, aka users whose age and parental status aren’t identified. Seriously? You can tell it’s a kid based on their search history.
Don’t wait until it’s too late: After 23-year-old Riley took his own life, his dad found instructions for committing suicide on Riley’s phone. There are hundreds of sites with similar how-tos. One of them gets 6 million views a month. So sad. If your kid is struggling, check their camera roll and search history, and then call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.
Don’t live in the past (or, if you do, erase it): You went down the Facebook rabbit hole while snooping on an ex and you want to wipe away the last 20 minutes of your search history. Log into Facebook on your browser and tap your profile picture. Select Settings & Privacy > Activity Log. Click Logged actions and other activity, then Search history. Tap Clear Searches.
Use Apple, Google, Facebook or Twitter? Here's how to find out what they know about YOU
It’s no surprise anymore that social media companies like Meta gather a lot of information about you. Tap or click here for 10 Facebook privacy and security settings you need to change right now.
When you create an account with Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, you’re asked if you’d like to sync your contacts. It seems harmless, but it’s not. Here’s why you need to stop doing this.
How-to: Clever way to hide your private phone searches
If you’ve got kids or a spouse, you already know that privacy is scarce, especially with your smartphone. Tap or click here for seven essential Android security settings to enable.
What if we told you there’s a way to prevent weird, awkward or otherwise private internet searches from being recorded in your phone’s local history? Sometimes, mum really should be the word. It’s easy to forget to hop into Incognito mode when juggling apps or multitasking IRL.
Exposed: Uncover the tracking secrets of Apple and Microsoft while you work on your Mac or PC
Ever accidentally liked something on social media you didn’t mean to click? Before you panic, read this to see which “likes” you can take back.
That’s just one small slice of what websites you visit and services you use collect about you. Here’s how to see (and erase) everything Google tracks.
That's embarrassing: It's time to wipe out your search history
If you feel comfortable with someone else looking through your search history, raise your hand. Yeah, I didn’t think so.
Sometimes it’s as innocent as shopping for a gift and not wanting to give away the secret. Pro tip: Use Incognito mode so you don’t get many ads showing precisely what you ordered.
Privacy tip: How to wipe what you searched for in your browser and on social media
If you share a computer with others in your household, keeping a surprise vacation or gift a secret can be challenging. Saved searches, in particular, can rat you out.
After all, if your web browser defaults to Expedia every time someone types in an “E,” your plans will be found out. Are you traveling soon? Tap or click here for some travel safety tips. Plus, saved searches eat up memory on your hard drive.
Opt-Out Tuesday: How to see what Microsoft knows about you and shut down tracking
Thanks to people search sites, your information is all over the internet whether you’ve ever accessed the site or not. Tap or click here to remove yourself from these invasive data collectors.
There are a few apps and services that don’t require you to sign in or create an account. But the more you use your details on various sites, the more information that company gathers on you. Eventually, these companies compile the data into a neat bundle and use it to serve you personalized advertising.
Mastodon is a hot new Twitter alternative - Here's how it works
It’s an understatement to say things over at Twitter are dramatic right now. Within a few days, about a million users have bailed.
Don’t worry! Kim’s not going anywhere. Twitter’s just too much fun to leave. Plus, we don’t want to miss out on Elon Musk’s next moves.
Don't have a Facebook account? Check if they have your phone number anyway
You know how to delete your browser search history, but what about things (or people) you look up on social media apps? Tap or click here to delete your search history on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
You don’t need to share your phone number with Facebook to have a profile, but it might still be there if you created your account in the past. Not long ago, people commonly displayed their contact information in their profiles for all to see.
Most embarrassing websites revealed
What would you do to avoid sharing your search history? USA Today says most Americans would give up their smartphone for a year to protect their privacy! Here’s why, in 60 seconds.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Can't find something you KNOW you read online? This is the genius solution
Your browser history is a record of the sites you’ve visited. This includes download history, search history, cookies and the time and day you visited each site.
This is useful when you want to revisit a page. It’s not so great when you’re sharing a computer with others. For privacy’s sake, you’ll want to clear your history, even if no one else uses your computer. Tap or click here for instructions on wiping your browser and social media histories.