Google stores your browsing and YouTube watch histories in your Google account, and by default, these search histories can be accessed by anyone who gets hold of your account or device.
In other words, if you don’t want your roommate, spouse, or friend to spy on your browsing or YouTube watch history, and switching to incognito mode isn’t among your preferences, you can decide to hide both behind password verification.
Most people might not consider encrypting their Google activity history, but I’ll advise you to do so because it contains almost everything about you, ranging from:
- Web and Map Searches
- YouTube History
- Google Assistant Queries, etc.
All is compiled and your activity page, which means anyone with access to a device you’re logged in to can see what you’ve searched, watched, and asked.
However, enabling verification will require anyone who wants to see your activity history to enter your Google account password.
How to Turn on My Activity Verification on Your Google Account
- To turn on the verification feature, log on to activity.google.com and log in to your Google account.
- Click on the “Manage My Activity Verification” link
- Select “Require extra verification” in the pop-up and click “Save.“
- Finally, you’ll be asked to input your password on the main Google login screen to confirm and that’s it.
Once enabled, you or anyone else would have to input your password or verify via screen lock each time access to the activity history is needed.
Nevertheless, it is also advisable to make sure the person you’re trying to hide your account activity from doesn’t have access to your account password; if they do, then it’s pointless to implement this feature.
However, you may want to change your password.
Alternatively, you can manually delete your account history, though Google will automatically delete your activities after 3 to 36 months, depending on your preference.
Log in to your Google account > Web & App activity > Auto Delete > Now select your preference. You can also manually delete items from your Web & Activity page.
You can also permanently deactivate the saving activity feature.
