Personal Google search history appeared on work computer. Does this mean work can see my private search history from my personal iPhone?

Question

I was recently using my personal google account on my work computer and some of my previous google searches appeared from my personal phone. I used Safari on my personal iPhone and I guess google.

So can work see that search history on my personal phone?

Maybe my google account was synced but I can’t access gmail on my work computer so I’m not sure why this showed up. Can they see my private searches or is it just pre filling from past searches from my private phone? Surely they cant access this from my private phone and it’s just google syncing somehow? I never used the work computer to search.

Answer 1

No, your work would have no ability to see the contents of your personal Google account. Someone walking by or if the computer has screen monitoring software would see what you saw on the screen.

Answer 2

As you logged into your personal account on the work computer (controlled by the company), theoretically they could (in a technical way) access the search history that was saved in your Google account¹ or other data stored in your personal account.

However, it is very unlikely they did this. They would need a lot of extra effort to do that, and if they accessed anything, it'd probably not be on purpose. Plus, there's likely a legal conflict between your right to privacy on your personal account and their right to access anything that is in their computer. You probably signed their company policy document stating that you wouldn't use that computer for any personal stuff (thus legitimizing them in case they needed to analyze the computer), but you may still have some rights there. Plus, different jurisdictions may reach different conclusions as well.

¹ Do note there's an option in Google account settings for not storing it.