Google now lets you password-protect the page that shows all your searches

Re:Google now lets you password-protect the page that shows ... by capableweb on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @10:03AM (#27276880)

I'm 99% sure that's misleading, as not 100% of "my" data gets deleted. For example, you surely have analytics around what search terms are being used (for Google Trends but probably even more granular data in-house), so when I search for something and then delete my account via that process, do you roll back the metrics on those search terms I used?

What about all the anonymized data, it's surely not removed either, because you don't even have a link to the original author of that data anymore.

I think we both know that Google doesn't actually delete the search history (as how could Google Trends work then?), but instead they make sure the history is not associated to any user anymore. Which is disassociation rather than deletion.

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Re:Google now lets you password-protect the page that shows ... by irjustin on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @10:26AM (#27277174)

We're being wordy technical so I'll join.

I think it's correct to call this a deletion. Assuming the anonymization happened correctly (for this argument, let's say it did).

Namely, I disagree that the anonymized constitutes "your data" now and it was disassociated at the time of inclusion of the "pool". You may have generated it, but there's no way of knowing that you or anyone else generated that data. There's literally no way to show proof of claim for that dataset - otherwise it not anonymous.

Because of that, I think Google can claim they are deleting your data accurately while still maintaining usage analytics.

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Re:Google now lets you password-protect the page that shows ... by suzzer99 on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @11:22AM (#27278027)

So never ever search your own name or anything that could personally be used to identify you is the lesson I guess.

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Re:Google now lets you password-protect the page that shows ... by MajorBee on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @12:07PM (#27278598)

I think it's fair to make a distinction between "deleting data" and "erasing the past".

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