Google keeps your search data even if you turn off history, delete it, or search while signed out. Any searches already used for AI training cannot be deleted because Google stores them separately. This is unlawful because:
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search queries are personal data
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AI training is a new purpose that requires a new legal basis
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Google provides no valid legal basis
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“stored separately” does not override the right to deletion
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anonymization is not a legal basis
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using signed‑out searches for AI is especially unlawful
This violates multiple GDPR principles: purpose limitation, data minimization, storage limitation, transparency, right to erasure, and lawful basis.
Google should not retain this data, yet it does.
Source:
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/14901683?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&sjid=14611837825664066987-EU#zippy=%2Caz-adatok-vezérlésének-módja%2Cso-können-sie-ihre-daten-kontrollieren%2Chow-to-control-your-data
Google keeps search data because data is money. It’s the foundation of their business, which is why they don’t let it go, why they “store it separately,” why they claim to “anonymize” it, and why they don’t delete it even if you turn off history or search while signed out. The anonymization claim is legally worthless, because it’s only something Google says, cannot prove, and has never been independently verified. Anonymization is not a legal basis, not an exemption, and does not make unlawful data retention lawful. If the data was personal at the moment of collection, it remains personal, and Google cannot keep it just because they want to. The system is designed so that no one can look inside, no one can verify it, and no one can stop it — which is why nobody notices what they should be noticing.
