By David Stenhouse, Data Mutz

If you have a Gmail address, you may want to check what Google records of your web history.

Over the past 20 years, Google has changed the manner in how you access information. It is no reach to say that Google comes to mind when you want to look up any subject on the web. Using Google Chrome, just typing your topic into the address bar will trigger the Google search engine to bring up results for you to navigate.

You may also have installed the Google Chrome browser on your PC. Also, if you have used Gmail while using the Chrome browser, your Google account may hold interesting information about your activity on the net. But in reality, if you are using other browsers, such as Safari (for Mac users) and are logged into your Google account, your history may be tracked.

Let’s delve into what may exist.

Login to your Google account by going to www.google.com and sign with your username and password. Once logged in, navigate to “Manage Account”. This can be found by clicking on your icon in the upper right-hand corner of the Google interface:

You will be presented with an entirely new screen. On the upper-left side of the Google interface just under “Google Account”, click on “Data & personalization”:

click on data & personalization in Google account

On the new page that pops up, you will be presented with a wide array of options. While many of these will be covered in other Data Mutz posts, we are going to stick with only the “My Activity” option where your web history is recorded. Click on that section (under “Activity and timeline”):

You should arrive at the “My Google Activity” page as shown in the screenshot below. Check the items circled below on your screen. If your “Web & App Activity” tab is checked as “On”, Google is keeping track of the websites visited, including the viewing of specific images you may have selected.

My Google activity web & app location history YouTube

Scroll down the page and you should note sections divided by usage dates, including the content visited. Take a quick look at the below screenshot:

google web history visited and searched for

On August 1st of last year, I was trying to figure out how to use the image editor “Gimp” and I was having a problem removing the background from an image. So, of course, I searched Google by typing “gimp can’t delete background”. That said, I can’t recall if I typed the entire phrase or if I started to type and Google gave me “suggestions” where I clicked to start the search. Minutes after that search was conducted, I visited two pages with content matching my search.

If you click on the “Details” link just right of the displayed time, Google will pop up further information about the activity occurring at that time and may include the device from where the search took place. Also noted is Google lets you know why the activity has been preserved in your account:

The important point to take away from this is that this information, although initiated by me on my laptop computer, is up in the Cloud on Google servers. I can access this information from anywhere and any machine that allows me to log in. That is because my Internet history activity is located in one of these locations:

https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/

What this tracking of activity does is help the user go back to where they once visited. if you viewed a site while logged into Google two weeks prior yet cannot remember how to get back, your online history probably has it for you. It is good for a user to navigate through the Account Settings and see what Google has kept about the previous activity.

And, of course, one last item: Don’t forget to log out!

This is especially important if you are visiting family over the holidays and using their computers to check email. If you are still logged in with Google, the next user may be able to view all of this information.

Quoted in Computerworld, Laptop Magazine, Businessweek, and numerous other print and online news outlets, David Stenhouse brings 20+ years of computer forensics experience working with law firms and corporate clients. He is currently President of DS Forensics, Inc..

A former Special Agent in the U. S. Secret Service and Trooper with the Washington State Patrol, he is now so blessed to spend each day running a business with his best friend—high school sweetheart and wife, Shay.

You can follow Data Mutz on Twitter @datamutz.