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Your Android device retains your Google searches, enabling various sites and services to use that data to personalize ads and other types of recommendations.
For some of us, that level of personalization makes using the platform easier. However, in this modern era, with companies leveraging such information to create a highly personalized picture of you and your web usage, one could consider this practice an invasion of privacy. This can be especially problematic if you accidentally search for the wrong thing, only to be inundated with ads that fall under the category of, "Why am I seeing this?"
Also: How to clear your Android phone cache (and say goodbye to slow performance)
I've witnessed people's eyes go wide when an ad pops up on their phones that they either shouldn't see -- or didn't want to see. For those who value privacy, it is possible to reclaim control over how much of a browser's search history is saved and when it's deleted.
I'm going to walk you through two processes:
Manually deleting that search cache. Configuring Android to auto-delete saved data.
How to manually clear the Google search cache
What you'll need: To do this, you'll need an Android device that is connected to your Google account. I'll first be demonstrating on a Pixel 6 Pro running Android 14 (with updated instructions afterward for more recent software versions).
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