Online privacy — or the lack thereof — has become a prominent issue. As a result, more and more services are adding features that speak to their users’ privacy concerns. If you’re a YouTube viewer (and who isn’t these days?), one of these concerns is probably your viewing history, which can tell marketers and other third parties more about you than you probably want them to know.
One way to prevent that type of intrusion is to delete that history. While you could previously delete your history manually (see below), Google has recently made the process automatic so you no longer have to remind yourself to perform the task regularly.
To set your YouTube account to automatically delete your history:
- Go to the Activity controls for your YouTube history. You can either follow this link to get there directly, or you can get started from your main Google account page. Find and click on the “Data & personalizations” tab, then “YouTube history” > “Manage activity.”
- Under YouTube History, you’ll see two boxes. The right-hand box helps you determine if and when your history of YouTube viewing and searching will be deleted. If you’ve never been on this page before, it will probably say “Keeping activity until you delete it manually.” Click just below that on the link that reads “Choose to delete automatically.”
- You can select to have Google delete your YouTube history after three months or after 18 months. Click on the option you prefer.
- Confirm your preference. Google will tell you at this point if you have anything that will be deleted immediately (because it’s older than three or 18 months).
