Browser recommends old sites even though I've cleared all my history


I am running Brave (it is up to date) on a Windows 10 system (which is also up to date). When I initiate a search, Brave recommends websites that I have visited in the past. I have told Brave to delete all Browsing History. One of my reasons for using Brave was to keep my browsing history private. Is there any way to make Brave totally forget my browsing history? I do NOT want Brave to look at my browsing history and use it to recommend sites as I am typing in a search request.

Expected result:

** Version 1.27.108 Chromium: 92.0.4515.107 (Official Build) (64-bit)
:**

Additional Information:

You can disable Show top sites in autocomplete suggestions and Show Brave suggested sites in autocomplete suggestions, both options are found at brave://settings/appearance.

You can configure Brave to delete your browsing history on exit via brave://settings/clearBrowserDataOn exit.

P.S Autocomplete searches and URLs at brave://settings/privacy uses cookies per description. Make sure you don’t have remaining cookies from the visits to those websites you’re seeing.

Thank you very much Rethanis. Disabling those autocomplete options stops Brave from showing the suggested sites that were concerning to me. This fixes this particular symptom of the problem.

I had already enabled “Clear Browser data on exit” AND (I do believe) ALL of my Browser history.

Do you know any way to actually force Brave to truly “forget” my browsing history? This would "fix’ the source of the problem.)

(My belief, from the fact that it keeps suggesting obscure sites that I’ve visited in the past, is that it is holding on to my history somewhere.)

I spoke too soon. Brave passed the first test I tried, but I just tried another, and once again Brave made an auto-complete suggestion of a website I visited recently, but that I believe had been deleted from my Browser history.

I am, and have been, using (supposedly) “private” windows.

You might like to disable the whole autocomplete functionality so you won’t be recommended websites as you’re typing in the address bar.

brave://settings/appearanceShow autocomplete in address bar.
brave://settings/privacyAutocomplete searches and URLs.

Using a private window would be the best way to prevent Brave from storing browsing data.

Thank you again Rethanis.

I turned off that last “autocomplete” function, and that appears to have stopped the symptoms (for now).

I am, however, still concerned that Brave certainly appears to be storing my browser history. As my system sits now, if someone turns the autocomplete conditions back on, my browser history will once again be displayed by Brave whenever someone enters a search item that even vaguely resembles a website I’ve visited in the past.

I am, and have been, using supposedly “Private” windows.

Is there any way that you know of to truly stop Brave from storing my browser history?

Using private windows is the only way to prevent the storage of browsing data.

Reading your comment, I come to the conclusion that you would like to keep your browsing private. For that, I highly recommend disabling all autocomplete functionalities and clearing all your browsing data on exit via brave://settings/clearBrowserDataOn exit.

Note: Clearing the browsing data for Site and Shields Settings resets the global Brave Shields settings at brave://settings/shields, it’s a known and reported bug. You might like to skip deleting that browsing data if you mind re-adjusting the global Brave Shields settings every time, in case you have changed those settings.

Thanks for hanging in Rethanis…

You are correct, I would like to keep my browsing data private.

I have repeatedly manually deleted all my browsing history (settings/additional settings/privacy& security/clear browsing data/all-time)

I have set my browser to “delete all browsing data on exit”. (And I have since re-started my browser multiple times.)

I am using “Private” windows.

That said, when I turn the auto-complete feature back on, Brave still suggests websites that appear to come from my browsing history. (They are far too specific to come from anything else.)

Do you have any other suggestions?

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