What if your great-gandkids found your internet history?

It's going to happen, you know.

If you really try, you can already find out the most intimate details of your own great-grandparents' lives, from their school reports, to legal disputes, and every time they were mentioned in a newspaper — the internet of its time — it's all online, and never goes away.

Someday your grandkids, if you have them, will probably be able to access your internet history. What will they think?

Just a chilling thought I had when looking at a very personal record from the 1800's. Even deleting that browser history won't save you.

Gregor Samsa

It'll be nothing compared to the collection of sex tapes I'm leaving them in my will.

ulster

Well if I could manage to put up with a woman for more than 5 minutes, I might actually get around to having some children.

Stihl waters

Theyd be in for a treat watching cim bbw and arguing on boards

While it might look out of step now, I like to think that by then they will know, by Jove, Great Granny was on to something.

Strumms

Fück all controversial..

Killing boredom on boards / facebook / Instagram

Load of football sites, online shopping, health / fitness related stuff, news, humor ...been downloading loads of ebooks.

BobbyMalone

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Someday your grandkids, if you have them, will probably be able to access your internet history. What will they think?

How would they be able to do that?

jacksonsarm

I'll be dead so no problem

McGinniesta

I hope they like squirt porn.

BobbyMalone

BobbyMalone wrote: »

How would they be able to do that?

Semi-public records, such as church records, were super-secretive 150 years ago. In a very old church record, I once came across an entry for the word "bastard" that was written in Greek beside the name of an infant The man who wrote it obviously intended it for his eyes only, or his religious colleagues. He couldn't have guessed that someone would decipher it on Google Translate.

These days, it's hard to believe that anyone could be poring over our search histories. But I bet they will, if they are very bored.

Leg End Reject

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Semi-public records, such as church records, were super-secretive 150 years ago. In a very old church record, I once came across an entry for the word "bastard" that was written in Greek beside the name of an infant The man who wrote it obviously intended it for his eyes only, or his religious colleagues. He couldn't have guessed that someone would decipher it on Google Translate.

These days, it's hard to believe that anyone could be poring over our search histories. But I bet they will, if they are very bored.

Where would they find out search histories?

Do we need to assume new identities to protect our future dead selves from having our dark and deviant thoughts and interests exposed?

Leg End Reject

Leg End Reject wrote: »

Where would they find out search histories?

From the small number of major internet service platforms, presumably.

Google will probably be long forgotten by 2121 in popular culture, but our search histories will be of minor historical interest.

fryup

i hope they're too innocent to know....

yerwanthere123

I'd be grand I think. My browsing history primarily consists of foreign language movies, particularly ones around twenty minutes in length from the Czech Republic, so nothing too controversial.

Batattackrat

My devices are fully encrypted.

Good luck getting anything off them.

And not with ****ty Bitlocker either.

Wibbs

Chances are they won't care. Generational memories are short. If you've not researched your family history, try naming just one of your great grandparents, never mind all of them, never mind your great great grandparents and so on. People see their kids as a legacy and they are on the genetic level, memory level not nearly so much at all. Unless you're hyper famous and remain that way over time.

I could see future researchers looking at our internet histories as a wider view into the past alright. Take this site on its own. It was for a time an interesting reflection of some of wider Ireland's views and experiences, at least for some demographics. Even today the Covid forum would be of some local historical interest around the reactions of Irish people to the event. Plus it will be a lot easier to read through than something like Facebook, Twitter or even Reddit. Certainly on the local level. Our individual onanistic preferences, not so much, save to even more specific researchers.

y0ssar1an22

internet will be so censored by the time my great grandkids come along, it wont be an issue.

Graces7

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Semi-public records, such as church records, were super-secretive 150 years ago. In a very old church record, I once came across an entry for the word "bastard" that was written in Greek beside the name of an infant The man who wrote it obviously intended it for his eyes only, or his religious colleagues. He couldn't have guessed that someone would decipher it on Google Translate.

These days, it's hard to believe that anyone could be poring over our search histories. But I bet they will, if they are very bored.

That was the norm at one time ( I do genealogy work for folk) an they would even scrawl it diagonally across the page.

NB it was simply the accurate way to describe a baby born out of wedlock and did not have the same ramifications it has now. They were as lepers, illegitimate babies; conceived in sin and folk needed to be told.

BobbyMalone

Wibbs wrote: »

I could see future researchers looking at our internet histories as a wider view into the past alright.

Already been happening, and been happening for some time now: the NLI are archiving important websites/social media paying attention to milestone events (the crash, referenda, elections).

drake70

They would probably wonder what Netflix, prime video etc. was. They might even be curious about what the internet was.

Because by then, everything will just be called Disney+

85603

i long ago put words to the effect of 'i know some day someone will look through my searches' into my browser.

so at least they'll know that i knew that they'd know.

but then again i dont plan on having kids, and very probably wont, so it doesnt really matter.

in any case they too would be fervent masturbators like grandpa. and the type to be looking at historic searches rather than excelling in future sports and probing future poon. any male offspring would likely have inherited the impressive 85603 hog.

gogo

They will wonder what my attraction was with an Indian man building a hut with a stick .... and why I wait until 1.30am to get sucked into such riveting viewing ....

85603

gogo wrote: »

They will wonder what my attraction was with an Indian man building a hut with a stick .... and why I wait until 1.30am to get sucked into such riveting viewing ....

you mean the guys who dig the holes to make houses and pools?

i reckon they get a jcb digger in between shots.

Dr. Bre

I will be brown bread so don’t care

ohnonotgmail

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

From the small number of major internet service platforms, presumably.

Google will probably be long forgotten by 2121 in popular culture, but our search histories will be of minor historical interest.

google only stores your search history if you are logged into a google account while browsing.

ohnonotgmail

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

google only stores your search history if you are logged into a google account while browsing.

I havent been logged out of google since, maybe, 2012.

I bet almost nobody logs out when doing a search. This is all going on your google 'record' I bet our grandkids will even read this (hello from the past, stay in school)

uch

My history will tell them not to do hard drugs and to be careful around the gargle, I don't think I can leave anything better, my own kids already have this ingrained so I don't think I've much to worry about

PsychoPete

I'd leave them enough money to cover the cost of all the therapy they'll need

Sharpyshoot

As long as they don’t ring me on a private number.

fryup

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Even deleting browser history won't save you.

no

so what's the surefire way to delete it?

RobbingBandit

Gdpr

grandas deadly porno reserves

A cousin who is big into history found my mother inter cert result it was very surreal but interesting she was dead by the time it came to light so we couldn't ask her about it.

It was from a time when even doing the internet would have been unusual as most left at 14.

fryup

fryup wrote: »

no

so what's the surefire way to delete it?

I'm only guessing, but I would imagine deleting your google account, and then bombing Google's data centres, to be sure to be sure.

Wibbs

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I havent been logged out of google since, maybe, 2012.

I bet almost nobody logs out when doing a search. This is all going on your google 'record'

I've used duckduckgo since that date. I've a google account only because of youtube, but have it set to full feck off mode, don't thank vids and my subs are decidedly mundane and every time I close my browser(daily because I shut down my laptop every night) it scrubs cookies and the like. Almost never browse the web by phone and even there location services and the like are off and I don't use android. Takes minutes to set up that sorta thing, not out of any paranoia, I'm way too boring to be paranoid, just don't want some cubicle drone in a data centre crunching my numbers. Feck that.

Ubbquittious

They will have fun reading all the datasheets for ancient electronic components and theyll be laughing at the ridiculously poor specs and wondering if the poor bastard (me) was actually trying to build something with them

Its not like finding a cherished box of letters

Itll be a huge digital scrapheap of millions of disconnected thoughts that will defy anyones interest beyond two or three minutes

fryup

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I'm only guessing, but I would imagine deleting your google account, and then bombing Google's data centres, to be sure to be sure.

does Google have access to people's browsing history even after said people delete it through their browsers??

They'll laugh at my reverence to brands like Sinclair (zx spectrum) a rubber keyboard, later Atari ST.

I’d be fine with it, as I don’t have an addiction to gonzo pornography like so many around here. There’s something so cringe inducing about lads boasting about watching porn and interfering with themselves. Most of them won’t procreate though so all good there.

beauf

fryup wrote: »

does Google have access to people's browsing history even after said people delete it through their browsers??

Yes. The history is on their servers and often on the ISP and routers its passed through on the way. Even if you use VPNs and TOR networks they can watch the end points and join the dots. If they wanted to.