Facebook now shows you your own search history

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4958870

by WilliamSt • 14 years ago

16 10 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

If you go to your Activity Log and check the box that says "Include Only Me Activity", all your searches will be displayed. Personally, I'm scared I'll forget to log off my facebook account one day and that someone might get access to which of my friends profiles I've searched for. What are your opinions?

jameswyse• 14 years ago

I don't see any searches, in fact the only thing that seems to change by clicking "Include only me activity" (and what is that even meant to mean?) is the query string in the URL.

I really wish everyone would switch to Google+, it's so much better.

WilliamSt2• 14 years ago

Try to search for a friend using the search bar on your newsfeed. Then go back and look again.

onlyup2• 14 years ago

"Include only me activity" means activities that are private. I.E. shared with only yourself

nwh• 14 years ago

This is what you end up with — http://i.imgur.com/bmdVc.png

Not the most comforting feature they've ever introduced. Especially as it shows you your history previous to this point.

coryl• 14 years ago

Hate it. What are our options for deleting/preventing this?

WilliamSt2• 14 years ago

It seems like you are able to "remove" searches but you have to click on all of them manually, there's no "remove all search history"-functionality, at least that I was able to find. Searches seems to go back to september this year for me.

pearsechris• 14 years ago

You can clear all of your searches in one click:

Activity Log >>> More (Under Comments) >>> Search >>> Clear Searches

andrewhillman• 14 years ago

they have been showing this for a couple months. I wasn't thrilled when I saw my history so now I don't do much searching. FB logs everything.

onlyup2• 14 years ago

So does Google.. and probably a lot of other sites.. Amazon etc.

nbpoole• 14 years ago

This is actually several months old:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/21/3369878/facebook-saves-you...

> The default privacy setting for searches is "Only Me," and cannot be changed unlike the privacy toggles of other Activity Log entries. But, you can delete any searches you want to hide from yourself. The idea is to provide added context and transparency to using Facebook, as well as provide you with complete control over every single thing you do on the site, like searches — which apparently we're doing a lot of.

Facebook now shows you your own search history

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