In order to address the privacy-concern of the users, Google today announced a new privacy-focused auto-delete option for automatically removing their Location History and Web & App Activity after a set period of time. You can now choose to delete your information manually, every three months, or every 18 months. With these settings enabled, Google will regularly clear out your data at the three-month mark or the 18-month mark.
Google last year courted controversy when an Associated Press investigation found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store users’ location data even if the users explicitly used privacy settings to turn it off.
David Monsees, Product Manager, Google Search, announced, “Choose a time limit for how long you want your activity data to be saved a” three or 18 months a” and any data older than that will be automatically deleted from your account on an ongoing basis.”
Marlo McGriff, Product Manager, Google Maps, further added, “You should always be able to manage your data in a way that works best for you.”
Google argued that when users turn on settings like Location History or Web and App Activity, the data can make Google products more useful for them like recommending a restaurant or helping pick up where they left off on a previous search.
Google said, “We work to keep your data private and secure, and we’ve heard your feedback that we need to provide simpler ways for you to manage or delete it.”
Prior to this change, Google allowed Location History and Web & App Activity to be disabled or manually deleted, but there were no controls for regular deletion, which may encourage more people to use these features
Google says the new controls for Location History and Web & App Activity will be rolling out “in the coming weeks,” and has suggested the auto-delete functionality will be coming to additional features in the future.
