who can see my searches and history

Technically anyone watching. It depends upon the detail. If you use a search engine they via a DNS must know your IP address to send the information to you and obviously the site you click on etc. However most of this is encrypted, but not your IP address hence the use of VPN. History is just a collection of searches and site etc. So they are pretty much both the same. Of course if you keep a history of such on your computer anyone who accesses your computer physically or remotely can access the data you store.