In May, Google announced that it would give users the ability to automatically delete the browsing and location history collected from their accounts. The company has kept its promise and now offers some tools that will allow users to set time limits after which their data will be automatically deleted.
Users can now delete their location history on both Android and iOS devices and choose to have their data automatically deleted after 3 or 18 months. By enabling this tool, they will be able to essentially erase the traces of information they leave online.
However, it should be noted that this feature has not yet been released for app and web activity data. Google stated that the automatic deletion tools for the above will start rolling out within the next weeks. Of course, it is especially important that we now have more control over our data.
How to delete your location data?
You can follow these steps to automatically delete your location data at regular intervals:
For Android devices, open your Google account and go to “Settings”.
- Go to “Data & Personalization”
- Select “Web & App Activity“
- Click on “Select for automatic deletion“
- Then, tap on “Choose how long to keep them for“
- Here you can choose either 18 or 3 months
Choosing one of the two will set a corresponding timer for the automatic deletion of your location data.
You are also given the option to allow Google to keep your location data until you delete it manually. Additionally, you can choose to pause other options such as web and app activity tracking by Google.
This data helps Google show us relevant ads and allows it to provide better search results and recommendations in apps like Google Maps and the browser.
However, most of us would agree that the security of our data comes before the convenience of our searches.
