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Comment by nemoniac | Hacker News Reader

Show of hands:

Who is actually going to do this? Who isn't?

Call me naive, but I like the idea of having tailored Search results and integrated information and recommendations based on my data at Google products.

Google is one of few companies that I trust. So while most people are freaking out about losing some sense of privacy I personally think that it can open some very exciting opportunities and new features. I want to see where this is going and how Google will be able to use my information that he has to provide something valuable to me. I'm happily keeping all my google data and search history. And I'm also ok with Google selling my anonymized profile with third parties.

After my password was stollen on PSN PWNAGE and my own Mom broke into my MSN account to delete my contacts on a Rage spree I don't trust many people anymore. So don't think I don't think my info and privacy are not worth my caution.

But after reading Google ToS carefully I agree with everything they want to do and I'm ok with it. Most people certainly never read Google's new ToS. a lot of information on the news in the last months and even here in Hacker News are FUD and misconceptions. Google will not own you, they just want to use your data to provide more value to you and it's advertisers. You are not exposed.

So top freaking out a little bit. Read the ToS and think about it.

I've just done so, and I intend on keeping Web History turned off. I simply do not derive enough benefit from having this data around for myself (when's the last time you benefited from Web History), and unlike other permanent data such as G+ posts, comments etc I do not self-censor searches that I would like to conduct, so I find it very plausible that someone with more processing power than me could find out more about me than I intend.

I was just about to and then realised that I had turned it off a while ago. The fact that I had completely forgotten it shows that I don't need this data.

However, it's also not something I'm hugely concerned about; as others have said the main danger is from some unscrupulous individual gaining access to your account. In terms of Google having access to my data, I would imagine my data will never be seen by human eyes. Having said that, one does need to remember the inherent permanence of data on the internet, as Facebook's timeline has shown sometimes your data can surface in unexpected ways.

You don't need it, but it makes search matching more efficient for the people that have it on.

An amusing way to spy on your friends is to create a google account, and then log into it from their computer. Until they log out of your account, you will be able to view their web history.

Aside from this, I have avoided this Google feature.

I did it a few years ago, for the concern that someone can log into my account and see or steal that data. The second reason was, that there actually wasn't a practical utility for me to have access to that data.

I turned it off a couple years ago, but I just removed it, just in case. I don't trust Google any more than I do Facebook.

I've always had web history turned off, so put me in category 3.

As a person who voluntarily enabled web history for personal use, no.

I'll admit I was actually considering switching 100% to another search engine and using purely Firefox....

I'm thinking about this too. But Firefox is so much slower and so unwieldy and annoying.

I just did, although I mostly use DuckDuckGo these days anyway.

Disabled. Under multiple IDs / accounts.

Definitely not.

Ever since they made this possible I've had web history turned off / paused.

If I don't need that data, they sure as hell don't need it.

I likely won't. Reason being, if I want customized, "filtered" searches, Google is where to be. If I want privacy and/or unfiltered searches, I'll use Duck Duck Go and Blekko.

If trust becomes an issue with Google, I won't just clear my search history, I'll leave for good.

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