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I just installed Google Chrome on my Mac at work, and used it for browsing the entire day. Among other things I went looking for an adblocker, which I found. When I got back home and did the same search, the links for that adblocker were styled as visited, even though I hadn't searched for it at home before. Does Google Chrome sync history between computers without even asking? I checked the preferences but sync is not set up on my home or my work computer.

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4 Answers 4

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Chrome does sync History now.

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Google does keep a track of previous searches, when you're logged into your account.

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  • Thanks Sathya, that's the thing, I just noticed the links were styled as visited when searching for the same terms in Firefox (on a third computer) as well.
    – Lizzan
    Oct 13, 2010 at 5:53
  • That's not true as of now. Chrome does already support History syncing
    – didxga
    Sep 29, 2013 at 5:32
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    @didxga right, that wasn't the case 3 years ago. Updated.
    – Sathyajith Bhat ♦
    Sep 29, 2013 at 7:29
  • Note that if you sign in on a new device, it will not necessarily contain all your past history from all devices. It does contain some, which is confusing. I don't fully understand it, but the history syncing does not seem to be 100% in general. Very often I have had to go to the specific device to find the history items I am looking for.
    – Michael Liquori
    Nov 20, 2015 at 18:58
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Yes Google Chrome does share history. To disable this click on Settings, Advanced Sync Settings and adjust what you want to Sync between work and home.

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    Ah, things have changed since 2010, I suppose?
    – Lizzan
    Aug 3, 2013 at 8:55
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If you access your Gmail on any browser and on any computer even if you choose "Go Incognito" Google recognises that appliance the next time it is used for a search and logs it in IT'S History datum under your info mostly for targeting ads.

So far so good because who cares what Google keep on their files.

Here's where it goes wrong.

  1. You have a Gmail account at work.
  2. You decide to access your emails at home.
  3. Your husband hops on that same computer and searches "porn"
  4. Your work IT guys now have access to all your husbands search history.
  5. You find out and want to delete it from your companies Google account.

You can't because it will just say you don't have access.

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Not just Google but YouTube search history is also connected. My sister and I had the same gmail account opened on our phones so now we have a common search history on both Google and youtube inclusive of both of ours searches. Even though miles apart one can know your online activity log.

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