Google Chrome Stores Your IP Address And Your Search Terms

Remember that time when many online privacy related legal institutions stood up against Google and as a result Google was forced to stop storing user’s details for longer periods. Google announced that now they will be storing the various user details (what you search for, your IP address, your email ID etc.) for just two years. Somehow, Google thought that the waves of that issue might have died down by now but that wasn’t and everything seems to have popped up once again when someone from Google told CNET News that Google will be storing 2 percent of the data which includes your IP address and whatever you type in browser’s Omnibox even if you didn’t hit the enter key.

In a nutshell, if Google is your default search engine in Google Chrome (which is mostly the case) then whatever you type in the address bar will be stored in Google’s servers along with your IP address.

If you think that Google didn’t inform you about this then I will request you to read what this short and sweet line in the End User License Agreement (EULA).

“By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.”

Shocked? Even I was but this what the hidden meaning of Don’t Do Evil for Google.

If you don’t want Google to store what you are searching for but still you want to continue with Google Chrome then either you can switch to Google Chrome’s Incognito mode (which hides your online presence) or else turn-off the auto suggest feature of Google Chrome. You can even stop using Google Search and move to Yahoo! search or Live Search but I guess these aren’t worth trying when compared to Google.

Tags: general chrome