Go to myactivity.google.com right now and scroll down. What you see is a complete record of your digital activity—every Google search, every YouTube video watched or searched, every Google Maps route, every Google Assistant command, timestamped and stored indefinitely by default.
Most people have never looked at this page. Most people have years of data sitting there.
Here’s how to delete it and set up automatic deletion so it doesn’t rebuild.
Step 1: Delete your full activity history
Go to myactivity.google.com.
Click Delete in the top left. Select Delete all time. A confirmation dialog appears—confirm the deletion.
This removes activity across Google Search, YouTube (watch history and search history), Chrome browsing history synced to your account, Google Assistant interactions, and general Google Account activity. The deletion is processed immediately and is permanent.
If you want to keep a copy of your data before deleting it, skip to the Google Takeout section below first.
Step 2: Turn on auto-delete
Deleting your history once doesn’t stop Google from logging new activity. To prevent it from rebuilding indefinitely:
Go to myaccount.google.com → Data & Privacy → scroll to History settings.
You’ll see individual toggles for Web & App Activity, Location History, YouTube History, and others. Click each one and look for the Auto-delete option. Set each to 3 months—Google will automatically delete anything older than that on a rolling basis.
With auto-delete set to 3 months, Google retains a short recent window for its own product functionality (personalized suggestions, etc.) but can no longer maintain a years-long historical profile.
Step 3: Delete location history (stored separately)
Google Maps location history is stored in a completely separate system from the main activity log—the myactivity.google.com deletion doesn’t affect it.
Open the Google Maps app → tap your profile photo → Your Timeline → tap the three-dot menu → Settings and privacy → Delete all Timeline data. Confirm.
Alternatively, in a browser: maps.google.com/maps/timeline → settings gear → Delete all Timeline data.
Step 4: Disable location history going forward
After deleting, prevent future logging:
Google Maps → profile → Your Timeline → settings → turn off Location History.
On your phone directly: Settings → Privacy (or Location) → find Google’s location history setting and disable it.
Optional: Download your data before deleting
If you want a personal archive of your Google data before removing it:
Go to myaccount.google.com → Data & Privacy → Download your data (Google Takeout). Select which products to include, choose a file format and size, and Google will prepare a downloadable archive. Depending on how much data exists, this may take minutes to hours.
What this doesn’t cover
This process removes your activity history from Google’s user-facing records. It does not necessarily remove all data from Google’s infrastructure—retained data in backup systems, data processed for advertising models, or data subject to legal holds may exist separately. For most users, the activity history deletion and auto-delete setup is the practical, meaningful step.