How to Disable “Make searches and browsing better” in Google Chrome

The URL Telemetry

Google relies heavily on user telemetry to improve the speed and accuracy of its search engine and web browser. Inside Chrome, there is a setting called “Make searches and browsing better.” When this feature is active, Chrome quietly packages up the raw URLs of the websites you visit and transmits them back to Google. Google uses this anonymous data to predict which websites you are likely to type next and to pre-load pages in the background. While this makes browsing slightly faster, it requires handing over a massive chunk of your browsing history to a third-party server. If you prioritize privacy over fractional speed increases, you must sever this telemetry connection.

How to Turn Off Browsing Data Sharing

You can stop Chrome from uploading your URL data via the Sync settings.

1. Open the Google Chrome desktop browser.
2. Click the three vertical dots (⋮) in the top right corner and select Settings.
3. In the left-hand sidebar, click on You and Google.
4. In the main window, click on Sync and Google services.
5. Scroll down to the “Other Google services” section.
6. Look for the master toggle switch labeled “Make searches and browsing better” (Sends URLs of pages you visit to Google).
7. Toggle this switch to the Off position.

Private Browsing

The change takes effect instantly. Google Chrome will completely shut down the background telemetry script responsible for harvesting your URLs. Your web traffic will remain local to your machine. Because Google is no longer receiving this data, you may notice that autocomplete suggestions in the address bar are slightly less aggressive and pages do not instantly snap open, but your privacy will be vastly improved.