Google to launch auto-delete function for location and web activity

Search engine giant Google will soon allow the users to auto-delete location history and more private data in rolling intervals of either three months or 18 months. The announcement was made by Google May 1, 2019.

The search engine in its announcement said, “Choose a time limit for how long you want your activity data to be saved—3- or 18-months—and any data older than that will be automatically deleted from your account on an ongoing basis”. The announcement added that such controls are coming first to Location History and Web & App Activity and will roll out in the coming weeks. The Google Location History saves the locations that are reported from the mobile devices that are logged in to the Google account and saved Web and app activity that includes ‘searches and other things that the users do on Google Products and services like the Maps, language, Your location, IP address, referrer and also if the users use a browser or an app.

It will also saves the information the ads that are clicked by the users or things that are bought on the advertiser’s site, information on the devices like the recent apps or contact names that the users search for. For now the users can already go to the Google Activity control settings that completely turns off the features that are saved on the location history and Web and app activity. However, the new auto-delete option will provide a middle ground in which the users who are concerned about the data storage can save the activity data for a non-forever period of time without the need to have to manually delete it once in a while.

The new auto-delete function does not appear to cover the Chrome history in a preview that is provided by Google. Deleting the data from the Google account should erase it from the data centre of Google except when it is stored in a way that does not identify the users.

Photo Credits: ZDnet