Today we answer a question that one of our readers asks us through our Ask what you want section .
Your question is whether someone who uses one of your devices on time can get to know where you have surfed the Internet and the searches you have done from another of them. Specifically, where applicable, it refers to browsing through a computer and the possibility of viewing that information on an Android phone registered with your same Google account .
The answer is clearly yes, it is possible and if we have not taken the precaution of reviewing our privacy settings, in all probability our browsing history will be accessible from all our synchronized devices , in real time. This includes other computers, phones, tablets, smart TV, video game consoles , etc.
Our activity in Google is registered in a very extensive way, we only have to review the personal information section of our account to verify that not only the web browsing history can be saved, but also our locations, voice searches, videos seen on YouTube, etc. . It is convenient to review this section to configure the privacy of our choice .
Let's think that there are many situations in which other people can see our activity on the Web, especially when we talk about the family environment. It is common to have several devices in the same home synchronized with the same account, even with several of them. Anyone who uses it has access, if not properly configured, to all the activity we may have done in another of them.
If we are uncomfortable that others can see our browsing history on other devices, such as a tablet , SmartTV or phone, for example in the family environment, we should review two important points, Google's privacy and Chrome's synchronization , in case to be that our usual browser. It is important to know that it is not enough to deactivate one of them , it will be convenient to check both points.
The privacy of our Google account
In general, our browsing history is stored in Google's "cloud" to be consulted from any other computer or device that we have registered with the same account. If we want to avoid it we must follow the following steps:
- We will access our Google account on a computer. We will click on the photo of our profile or in the space reserved for it and then on ' My account '.
- In the page that shows us we will go to the section ' Control of your activity '.
- We only need to deactivate the section that shows, moving the selector to the left and remaining gray.
- A box will appear to confirm that we wish to stop the synchronization of this information. From the moment we deactivate this service, our browsing history will only be saved in the browser itself and will not be accessible from other browsers even if we access with the same account. But there is an exception , which we discuss below.
Chrome sync
The Chrome browser, from Google, is the most used nowadays in the whole world. One of its interesting features is the ability to synchronize it under a Google account so that certain information appears automatically on any other device in which we also use Chrome. If for example we use this browser on a computer and on a phone, the bookmarks that we store in one of them will appear immediately saved also in the other. Other information that is synchronized is browsing history, saved passwords, etc.
For this we must have registered Chrome with our account on both devices and its effect is independent of having or not accessed that account in the browser . That is to say, we could be sharing our browsing history with other familiar devices even if we have deactivated the privacy of Google that we have commented before.
To avoid sharing this data through Chrome we can eliminate the synchronization or better yet, configure it properly . To check if we keep our browser synchronized and what it shares, we must go to its configuration , both in the Web version and on the mobile.
- In both cases it is the first option that appears. In the Web version, in the 'Log in' section we must click on ' Advanced synchronization settings ' and select only those data that we want to share. What we leave disabled will work independently, will not take data from other devices or share them. It is interesting to keep the synchronization activated at least of the markers, and avoid the history and passwords, but each user must choose according to their criteria.
- In the case of a mobile device, we must go to the Chrome settings and click on our account. In the version that I have tried, it is necessary to do it a second time in the following screen until we see the synchronization configuration. You have to expect that in an Android device, being linked to our Google account, Chrome will be synchronized by default and also with all types of data.
Also here we can choose what we want to share with other Chrome browsers registered with our account.