Google is giving people a lot more control over their personal data.
The company announcedon Wednesday a new feature that lets people automatically delete their location history and web activity data attached to their Google account.
Now, if they choose, users can automatically delete their location and web history after 3 or 18 month intervals. Once enabled, any data older than the selected amount of time will be automatically deleted from their account on an ongoing basis.
A Google demo walks users through the steps to change their data retention settings.Credit: googleGoogle users could already delete specific location and web data as well as completely turn those features on or off— but this new feature will make it easier to delete all of that data after short increments of time.
The announcement coincidentally comes in the wake of a lawsuitthat was filed against Google last year over its location history data collection practices. An investigation uncovered that the search giant was still tracking userseven after they turned the feature off in their settings.
Google says it uses this type of datato personalize user experiences. For example, location data can be used to recommend a restaurant during a Google Maps search; however, many Google Account holders simply aren’t aware that the search company is collecting and storing private data on what websites they visit or where they’ve traveled.
With privacybecoming a bigger concern within the tech industry as a whole -- and the threat of regulationlooming -- companies like Google are stepping up and giving its users more control over their data. To take advantage of the privacy feature, visit your Google account activity controls.
UPDATE: June 26, 2019, 10:26 a.m. PDT On Wednesday, the auto-delete feature rolled out to iOS and Android users.
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