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I don't want to PANIC you, BUT . . .

By Mimi Foster

Real Estate Agent with Falcon Property Company

March 01, 2012 12:22 AM

I don't want to panic you, BUT . . .

We search on the internet all day, every day, for information. Houses, illnesses, people, events, books, old sweethearts . . . you name, we search for it.

whispering But have you ever searched for something on Google that you wouldn't want the WHOLE WIDE WORLD (or the WWW) to know about?

Well, look out. If you have a Google account (gmail, Android, Google Search, YouTube, etc.), Google has changed their Privacy Policy today, and everything that you have ever searched for in a Google search will now be publicly available unless you do something about it.

So if you want to clear out your web history and keep Google from keeping PUBLIC record of where you search, here are some simple steps to help you out:

Go to your Web History and enter your password if prompted to do so.
If your web history is ON, the list of sites that you have visited that have been recorded by Google will be displayed (if you haven't done this recently, it is a trip down memory lane).
Click on the "Remove All Web History" button.
They will ask you (because you really don't mean it, right?) if you are ". . . sure you want to clear your entire web history? Your web history will also be paused." Oh, yes, YOU'RE SURE.
You should then see "Your search history is currently empty" and that your "Web History is paused" STAY AWAY FROM THE RESUME BUTTON. LEAVE IT PAUSED.
You are now done.

Don't be misled. Google will still be tracking you, and this is not about just clearing your history. But they will not be able to make that information public on their forums, and they can only release it to law enforcement officials in an investigation if you follow the simple steps above. I suggest that you don't Bookmark this and wait for a future time, but that you do it right now (it will take about one minute). Now all of your friends won't find out that you were searching for Painted Ladies, when you were actually looking up Victorian Homes. WHEW . . . and you're welcome :)

(Don't forget you can hit the "END" button on your keyboard to get to the end of the comments, and the "HOME" button to get back to the top. Be sure to hit the "SUBSCRIBE" button on the way by :) )

I don't want to panic you, BUT . . . was written by Mimi Foster

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Mary Borth

Bloomington-Normal, IL

LuxeHomesBN.com

I don't really get all the 'panic'. It seems kind of alarmist to me. And I think it's interesting that as Realtors we would be so concerned with this since I bet we all use analytics every day to track our clients behavior. Are we going to disclose to our clients that we can see every move they make on our websites and that we save it all in a tracking program?

Mar 02, 2012 11:39 PM

Dave Hill PhD,ePro,SFR,CIAS,BPOR,CNE,CSC Chicago Area Real Estate Agent

Midwest Premier Realty, Gurnee IL 224-321-0699 - Gurnee, IL

Mimi - Thanks for the heads-up. I have now taken care of this. Also agree with your comment #165 "If I want it shared, I will do the sharing"

Have a great weekend!

Mar 03, 2012 12:08 AM

Rebecca Gaujot, Realtor®

Lewisburg, WV

Lewisburg WV, the go to agent for all real estate

Hi Mimi, I reblogged this and you have a lot of reblogs so this message is definitely getting out there. Thanks for the tip!

Mar 03, 2012 12:56 AM

Mimi Foster

Falcon Property Company - Colorado Springs, CO

Voted Colorado Springs Best Realtor

And just as an aside, this post has generated 3500 "Clicks" in less than 48 hours. I think that is fun :))))

Mar 03, 2012 01:44 AM

Bob Miller

Keller Williams Cornerstone Realty - Ocala, FL

The Ocala Dream Team

Hi Mimi, I started be web smart several years ago. I try not to share anything I would not share with everyone!

Mar 03, 2012 07:28 AM

Beverly Femia

BlueCoast Realty Corporation - Hampstead, NC

Broker Realtor Stager - Greater Wilmington, NC Are

Thank you Mimi for the heads up and I'll be taking care of it. Yes, everyone's trying to track everyone else but I still want control and my privacy. The one will help me keep the other.

Mar 03, 2012 08:59 AM

Kasey & John Boles

Jon Gosche Real Estate, LLC - BoiseMeridianRealEstate.com - Boise, ID

Boise & Meridian, ID Ada/Canyon/Gem/Boise Counties

Hey Mimi! Since I'm subscribed to you I am sure I would have gotten to this at one time or another, but I have to give Rebecca Gaujot's reblog on this one. I checked mine, I'm good - empty and paused. But I would have never even known that htis was something to be concerned about. Thanks! -Kasey

Mar 03, 2012 02:20 PM

Susanna Haynie

CO-RE Group, LLC -Real estate sales and services - Colorado Springs, CO

Colorado Springs Realtor GRI CNE MCNE ePro MRP

thanks for the reminder. I removed my history from my main email, however this post prompted me to check my other email addys AND tell my husbands to paus his history as well.

Mar 04, 2012 01:00 AM

Julie Babcock -Nook & Cranny Home Inspections

Nook & Cranny Home Inspections Tonawanda, NY - Tonawanda, NY

Thanks for posting, and I'm happy to report that my history is "paused". It never ceases to amaze me how many times Facebook (and now Google) changes settings and you have to now figure out how to limit its visibility again.

Mar 04, 2012 01:35 AM

Jenny Durling

L.A. Property Solutions - Los Angeles, CA

For Los Angeles real estate help 213-215-4758

Thanks for the info. Luckily when I went to clear history, I got this message:

Web History has not been enabled by the administrator of the domain @lapropertysolutions.com

Yippee!

Mar 04, 2012 04:43 AM

Charles Walk

... ooops! I guess I had better keep an eye on my internet history... thanks.

Mar 04, 2012 06:31 AM

Ann Steinemann

Russell Real Estate Services-Sandusky - Sandusky, OH

REALTOR, GRI, PPS

Mimi, thank you for sharing this tidbit. I periodically delete cookies and history on Internet Explorer but didn't think to also do it on Google. Good to know. History on Google is now deleted and new searches are paused.

Mar 04, 2012 07:39 AM

Kris Wales

Keller Williams Realty - Lakeside Market Center - Macomb, MI

Real Estate Blog & Homes for Sale search site, Macomb County MI

Thanks so much! I headed over that and took care of this. One more bit of control that I have left in regards to privacy.

Mar 04, 2012 08:51 PM

Krystal Knott

Christie's International Real Estate - Summit Colorado - Breckenridge, CO

Breckenridge CO Real Estate & All Summit County CO

Mimi, thank you for the great information. We have several google accounts and I had no idea they were able to publicly display your web history...ughh! Thanks again and have a great day! --Krystal

Mar 04, 2012 10:50 PM

Tibor I. Olah

Apex Results Realty Inc.Brokerage - Burlington, ON

I always delete on exiting, do not want to leave any traces for anyone, also a good habit is not to leave webpages open for hours.

Mar 05, 2012 04:52 AM

Anonymous

Dustin Renner

Mimi,

Good job on this article and thanks for caring enough to help educate people about this. I am glad to see more people becoming aware of what is happening in regards to their online privacy.

Removing and pausing your web history is a step that you should take, but in reality, it does very little to truly protect your privacy while you are online.

Doing this doesn’t eliminate this history; it makes it unavailable to you. Look at what Google says about this: “You can remove all Web History from your Google Account at any time. While signed in to your Google Account. However, as is common practice in the industry, and as outlined in the Google Privacy Policy, Google maintains a separate logs system for auditing purposes and to help us improve the quality of our services for users.”

The real problem goes much further than your history or even Google. Whenever we access a web page, send an email or share a file, our information travels through cyberspace and bounces off an untold number of machines before it arrives at its destination. That information is sampled at light speeds during its journey by automated data mining programs running on behalf of our local internet service providers, advertising agencies, and big brother all with their own agendas. Though most of us have a reasonable expectation of privacy, in reality our most private communication with friends, family and work are commonly exposed when conducted over the internet.

The privacy rights that we are supposedly afforded in life don’t translate to our online lives. When we send a letter we have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The letter will arrive at its destination, unopened. Sadly, this is not the case online. Most traffic sent over the Internet is plain text, and even that which is encrypted with SSL is susceptible to a trusted man in the middle interception.

I also believe that as real estate professionals (I am licensed myself in Alaska), we must not only be concerned about our own privacy, but also the clients that we represent. Look at how many times real estate agents send emails back and forth or use different online services where our clients personal information, contracts and more are involved.

Individuals need to be wearier and take steps to protect online privacy. Hush Tunnel (hushtunnel.com) is an example of a personal encryption service that is not prone to trusted interception. (Disclaimer: this is a service we launched). Hush Tunnel is the easiest way to protect your privacy online, encrypting and anonymizing your internet traffic with a single click. Combine this with local privacy techniques such as cookie management and ad blocking, and parasitic organizations will have a much harder time finding targets to prey on.

Mar 11, 2012 01:54 PM

#213

Raymond E. Camp

Ontario, NY

Thank you for the tip.

Mar 12, 2012 11:44 PM

Gloria Todor

Premier Property Sales & Rentals - Springfield, PA

& Doug Durren (484) 431-3686 in SE PA

Thank you Mimi for this important piece of information and thanks to John M #1 for his re-blog that brought me to this post.

All the best.

Gloria

Mar 13, 2012 07:59 AM

Inna Ivchenko

Barcode Properties - Encino, CA

Realtor® • GRI • HAFA • PSC Calabasas CA

well, we are getting used to idea that we are tracked. Each has own opinion. I recently met a guy who actually work in tracking our preferences. Companies come to him and tell: i want to target this kind of customers with this preferences, they select the list the sell. That's why each of us has own ads sent to us. Well....we are tracked. There is no such things as privacy any more. Unless u have a lot of money to hire ppl who will take care of it.....

Mar 16, 2012 05:07 PM

F U

nobody - Alamance, NT

Dead

Thanks for the great advise, I followed your instructions. If you would remind me in th future to do this and all other clean ups on the net. We all forget about the information we leave for everyone to see. A bit of privacy goes a long way, thanks again.

Apr 30, 2012 04:10 PM