delete search history

delete search history

The Importance of Deleting Search History: Privacy, Security, and Digital Well-being

1. Introduction to Search History

Users leave their footprints in the form of cookies, clickstreams, search terms, and other digital traces. Exposing these footprints may lead to a loss of privacy. Google search has a preference page where a user can choose to not record their search history. But the default is on, and most people do not know that their searches are already recorded. It costs Google more to store the search history than not. Computer resources, and in particular Flash, are costly. Google thus provides the one-click delete button and the search history view/edit link. The question arises as to whether the search history should be on or off by default. Because search history is easily deleted, an average user cannot make use of it to reveal a user was a searcher. In this paper, we show beyond searches, web, and map history, as well as location history, we also show that search history could be another way to help users remember their previous activities, which has been emphasized in prior research. Finally, we argue search history can be far more insightful than search query alone.

A query string is typed inside a small rectangular box. The query string, such as “how many cups in a pound”, is always crafted based on current needs. It thus is an invaluable source of personal context. It is hardly toxic or sensitive. On the other hand, it may or may not be related to other past queries. By looking at all the query strings as a whole, we can denoise, generalize, and contextualize the current query. But it may also expose the privacy of the searcher at the same time.

2. Privacy Concerns and Risks

Risks of ISPs or OEMs misusing an interlocutor’s disambiguated and unencrypted search history for unsavory architectural, marketing, personal gain, competitive analysis, neighborly conflict resolution, or harassment lead to serious privacy concerns and are not addressed by existing search-engine search term memory clearing features. As the adage goes, it is difficult to put the toothpaste back in the tube. Once search begins, delete search is a shallow promise to the user. Legal protections against misuse of disambiguated search identity and search history are gaining public interest, but until such protections are in place, native temporal user delete triggers that delete searches after a short enough period must be implemented to protect the well-being interests of all users.

Surveillance, tracking, and the use of search history come with OEMs’ and ISPs’ gains, but users often trade entry to free search engines and services for having their searches and images tracked across the internet. This privacy risk of OEMs’ and ISPs’ using user search habits as business intelligence often leads to uncomfortable personal and discriminatory situations, as well as more serious stalking and domestic abuse. Ultimately, any ISP or OEM can peer into the consciousness and context of a user’s digital life with access to the user’s disambiguated and unencrypted search history. Suppressing any Black women, members of a particular religious group, or transgender individuals can have serious social and legal ramifications, from interfering with a search engine’s situatedness to wholesale denial of the existence of a population.

3. Security Implications

Obliteration of history does not occur through mere deletion. Data does not leave one’s machine once a deletion operation is performed. Index entries are removed, but new data will be interpreted, presenting potential privacy concerns. Even where data is zeroed out, the original data can be accessed through forensic techniques most data theory courses have disclaimed. Technology equipped to meet many common security requirements requires adherence to particular procedures. A responsible vendor will put hard drives through a wash where all data is zeroed. Virtual machine instances running in shared environments should be destroyed, allowing new instances to be created where an organization trusts the vendor. Cellular phone numbers are recycled, and changing your number might not sufficiently destroy records of calls. Picocells could track phone number changes in certain situations, revealing your actions better than call records, which could reveal your past location. Besides privacy, there are several near-term and immediate security reasons for history obliteration.

There are numerous reasons to clear one’s history. Privacy concerns are frequently discussed, though physical well-being, particularly in terms of mobile health technologies, is also important. It is important to note that health, function, and privacy are entwined, making it difficult to separate these issues. Many see unspecified health and privacy impacts as reasons to mass delete history. Security also plays a largely unremarked upon role in making history deletion important, though. Sensitive utility and market data may be exposed by data mining, data-generating history. Poorly designed form fields in online databases may allow exfiltration from the server hosting the records, though other mechanisms will often suffice. Law enforcement could also gain access. That said, under U.S. law, most would remain accessible if contained in a user’s history. Rudimentary obfuscation techniques have kept most criminals from discovery following anomalous use, but these are not secure and could be eliminated.

4. Digital Well-being and Mental Health

Hiding search history can alleviate either service-failure or privacy concerns that can impact an individual’s mental well-being. Service failures can impact an individual’s mental well-being, especially when individuals depend on a specific digital service for gaining validation, knowledge, or for day-to-day practical aspects. Examples of digital service failures include auto-complete implications associated with unseen search history, tag-based search result generation effects, personalized recommendations, effects on mental health apps, excessive tracking by advertisements, and socio-technical gaps of sensitive health data. Providing indirect methods to delete search histories either entirely or via specific search query facets may help mitigate digital service failures. Individuals who are unwilling to use existing privacy search features fearing friendships or work relationships may find alternative value in deleting entries from their search histories. Deletion methods can also be perceived as a friendlier manner to communicate the dear-google method, which will enable individuals to communicate the societal impacts and make individual choices more transparently.

The use of search history deletion as an indirect way of enhancing digital well-being is a relatively unexplored territory. Prior research has shown that interpersonal conversations can play a positive role in distributing and alleviating the burden related to stigmatizing topics and sharing mental health concerns. In cultures and societies that have difficulty or are averse to conversing about well-being issues openly, internet search histories could effectively serve as an indirect subtext platform providing aggregated data about the well-being status of those individuals. Despite facing privacy concerns in using search query data, a prior study showed that a web-based mental health questionnaire administered through recommendations on the most frequently visited domains performed similarly to self-report data. Self-diagnosis information obtained from search queries can reinforce existing beliefs about one’s mental health status, leading to functional somatic syndromes and needless medical testing.

5. Best Practices for Deleting Search History

(1) Viewing search history does not expose an individual to a great deal of risk. Clearing it is no more than regular housecleaning. (2) Regular deletion of web history reduces risk and the long-term accumulation of potentially personally identifying information. (3) Placing pressure on firms that collect such data under the auspices of a user experience might encourage respect for the privacy of those they hope to attract as users. (4) Regular clearing of web history acts to disrupt the trail of commercially valuable information that allows persuasion targeting for commerce and electoral politics alike. (5) Regular clearing of web history reduces the potential information available to whomever accesses the device, intentionally or otherwise.

Seeing what your search history consists of is an important first step in understanding the data that search engines might have about you. If you are a regular on a search page that includes cookies, you have now become a beacon for those whose business is finding leads to persuade. After checking your history, the next best practice to encourage privacy and security is to turn off web history. But deleting web history, on a regular basis, is the very least we can all do to protect our privacy, maintain our security, and perhaps even start enjoying our screen experience!

Before rushing to hit delete, however, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, it is worthwhile to delete search history from your own devices. Consider also the footprint you leave on others’ devices. Search, and particularly referrals, make up a major part of the few corporate revenue streams that are propped up by your very activity. Just as people appreciate your ad views, so the sources of data accumulation appreciate that you are there, for one click, or less. It might complicate their business model, but restricting visits to and referrals from known channels, or those networks that demonstrate fidelity to customer habits and choices, would reduce the effectiveness of surveillance. Further, restriction by source does not reveal your current interests and preferences in a way that straightforward referrals can.