Your browsing data, in a single archive...
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[This page](https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/download-data) presents a "Create an archive" button to download all (?) the browsing data Microsoft has on whatever account you use to log into that page. The .zip file produced (in my case) contains 4 files: BrowsingHistory.csv ProductAndServiceUsage.csv SearchRequetsAndQuery.csv UserVisitLocations.csv Clearly this is private information (and I'm sure MS pinky-swears is only accessible to yourself), but it is rather interesting information. I've seen scripts before that will export similar data from your local browser (reading it out of local files), but the benefit of getting this data from that location is that the local browser only knows about, well, what you've browsed *locally*. If you browse from multiple devices, a script to extract that data will only show the subset that was browsed from that device. Whereas the web site above is device-agnostic - this is everything collected across the board. (Unless that data all gets included when you allow your browser to sync settings - I don't know whether that's the case). Regardless - my question is: Has anyone ever written a utility to slice and dice that data? I honestly don't have a specific usage scenario, but I'm thinking this could be interesting. It's trivial enough to parse (it's all CSV, and all columns are self-explanatory), but I wonder if anyone's already put something together to present this in interesting ways...? I'm otherwise tempted to automate the data retrieval, dumping this into a database, and building reports around this...but as mentioned, I don't have a specific usage scenario right now, and frankly I kinda suck at creating compelling reports, Power BI-style.
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[This page](https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/download-data) presents a "Create an archive" button to download all (?) the browsing data Microsoft has on whatever account you use to log into that page. The .zip file produced (in my case) contains 4 files: BrowsingHistory.csv ProductAndServiceUsage.csv SearchRequetsAndQuery.csv UserVisitLocations.csv Clearly this is private information (and I'm sure MS pinky-swears is only accessible to yourself), but it is rather interesting information. I've seen scripts before that will export similar data from your local browser (reading it out of local files), but the benefit of getting this data from that location is that the local browser only knows about, well, what you've browsed *locally*. If you browse from multiple devices, a script to extract that data will only show the subset that was browsed from that device. Whereas the web site above is device-agnostic - this is everything collected across the board. (Unless that data all gets included when you allow your browser to sync settings - I don't know whether that's the case). Regardless - my question is: Has anyone ever written a utility to slice and dice that data? I honestly don't have a specific usage scenario, but I'm thinking this could be interesting. It's trivial enough to parse (it's all CSV, and all columns are self-explanatory), but I wonder if anyone's already put something together to present this in interesting ways...? I'm otherwise tempted to automate the data retrieval, dumping this into a database, and building reports around this...but as mentioned, I don't have a specific usage scenario right now, and frankly I kinda suck at creating compelling reports, Power BI-style.
Not me, I have no Microsoft accounts. The only use I would have would be "I know I saw something somewhere a while back..."
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Not me, I have no Microsoft accounts. The only use I would have would be "I know I saw something somewhere a while back..."
So, congrats, you're one of the few who has figured out[*] how to set up Windows 10+ without being forced to create/associate with a Microsoft account... OTOH, I suppose it's entirely possible to create that account, but still explicitly not use it for browsing...or avoid a MS browser altogether... [*] No need to point me to any resource for doing that, I have a few tricks up my sleeve.
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[This page](https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/download-data) presents a "Create an archive" button to download all (?) the browsing data Microsoft has on whatever account you use to log into that page. The .zip file produced (in my case) contains 4 files: BrowsingHistory.csv ProductAndServiceUsage.csv SearchRequetsAndQuery.csv UserVisitLocations.csv Clearly this is private information (and I'm sure MS pinky-swears is only accessible to yourself), but it is rather interesting information. I've seen scripts before that will export similar data from your local browser (reading it out of local files), but the benefit of getting this data from that location is that the local browser only knows about, well, what you've browsed *locally*. If you browse from multiple devices, a script to extract that data will only show the subset that was browsed from that device. Whereas the web site above is device-agnostic - this is everything collected across the board. (Unless that data all gets included when you allow your browser to sync settings - I don't know whether that's the case). Regardless - my question is: Has anyone ever written a utility to slice and dice that data? I honestly don't have a specific usage scenario, but I'm thinking this could be interesting. It's trivial enough to parse (it's all CSV, and all columns are self-explanatory), but I wonder if anyone's already put something together to present this in interesting ways...? I'm otherwise tempted to automate the data retrieval, dumping this into a database, and building reports around this...but as mentioned, I don't have a specific usage scenario right now, and frankly I kinda suck at creating compelling reports, Power BI-style.
dandy72 wrote:
BrowsingHistory.csv
Mine only contents a thousand lines :
1. https://www.google.com/search?q=chrome+download
2. bing, leave me alone
3. god dammit bing, not again...
576. Noooo, please, no bing...
894. Bing, for christ's sake, stop firing up at every misclick -
So, congrats, you're one of the few who has figured out[*] how to set up Windows 10+ without being forced to create/associate with a Microsoft account... OTOH, I suppose it's entirely possible to create that account, but still explicitly not use it for browsing...or avoid a MS browser altogether... [*] No need to point me to any resource for doing that, I have a few tricks up my sleeve.
dandy72 wrote:
you're one of the few
Do you really think we are "a few"?
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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dandy72 wrote:
you're one of the few
Do you really think we are "a few"?
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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dandy72 wrote:
BrowsingHistory.csv
Mine only contents a thousand lines :
1. https://www.google.com/search?q=chrome+download
2. bing, leave me alone
3. god dammit bing, not again...
576. Noooo, please, no bing...
894. Bing, for christ's sake, stop firing up at every misclick -
[This page](https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/download-data) presents a "Create an archive" button to download all (?) the browsing data Microsoft has on whatever account you use to log into that page. The .zip file produced (in my case) contains 4 files: BrowsingHistory.csv ProductAndServiceUsage.csv SearchRequetsAndQuery.csv UserVisitLocations.csv Clearly this is private information (and I'm sure MS pinky-swears is only accessible to yourself), but it is rather interesting information. I've seen scripts before that will export similar data from your local browser (reading it out of local files), but the benefit of getting this data from that location is that the local browser only knows about, well, what you've browsed *locally*. If you browse from multiple devices, a script to extract that data will only show the subset that was browsed from that device. Whereas the web site above is device-agnostic - this is everything collected across the board. (Unless that data all gets included when you allow your browser to sync settings - I don't know whether that's the case). Regardless - my question is: Has anyone ever written a utility to slice and dice that data? I honestly don't have a specific usage scenario, but I'm thinking this could be interesting. It's trivial enough to parse (it's all CSV, and all columns are self-explanatory), but I wonder if anyone's already put something together to present this in interesting ways...? I'm otherwise tempted to automate the data retrieval, dumping this into a database, and building reports around this...but as mentioned, I don't have a specific usage scenario right now, and frankly I kinda suck at creating compelling reports, Power BI-style.
Erm, some of us use Chrome
Paul Sanders. If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter - Blaise Pascal. Some of my best work is in the undo buffer.
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Erm, some of us use Chrome
Paul Sanders. If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter - Blaise Pascal. Some of my best work is in the undo buffer.