What you need to know
- Google now allows users to auto-delete location history and web/app activity data.
- You can schedule it to be deleted every 3 or 18 months.
- The tool is available now in the Google app for Android and iOS.
Privacy and security are of ever-increasing importance, especially when large companies like Google store so much of our personal data. Google gets a lot of flack for regularly tracking users' location history and web/app activity, and today, the search giant is introducing a new tool to give you better control over how long it has access to that information.
As of June 26, you can hop into the Google app on your Android handset or iPhone and set up an auto-delete feature for Google's Location History and Web & App Activity.
Right now, you have the option of automatically deleting the data every 3 or 18 months. Any data that's older than either of those two time frames you select is deleted in the background for you, while data newer than that is preserved so Google can continue to use that information to recommend restaurants, give you better search recommendations, etc.
We've previously had the option of being able to bluntly turn this tracking on or off, but with the new option to have it auto-delete, you can still benefit from the services Google offers with this data without years of it piling up in the background.
The feature was first announced back in May, but it's just now actually making its way to users.
