If you’re a privacy enthusiast and are worried that Google may be storing your location data (where you’ve been or where you’re going next) and utilizing it to track you. Well, Google wants to reassure you that it isn’t doing that and hand over the control of your location data to you.
As per an official blog post, it’s finally following through on a promise to let users auto-delete location history on both Android and iOS, starting today. This new feature gives users the option to limit how long Google should store location data before it demands deletion. This feature is also being made available for web and app activity, making it simpler for users to keep a check on what data of theirs Google has and for how long.
Google is offering you the option to choose between deleting the activity data after 18 days, 3 months or manually based on your preference. If you select any of the former options, any of your older data will be deleted automatically.
Well, it’s not the easiest task to spot the “location history” option in your Google account page. Google has laid out everything neatly, but it still takes a minute or two to find the option you’re looking for. So, let me guide you through the steps to set up auto-deletion of your Google account’s location history.
How to Setup Auto-Deletion of Web & App Activity
1. Jump into your Android phone’s Settings and navigate to the Google option. Here you will need to open your Google account page.
Note: You’ll need to open the Google account page on iOS via the ‘Manage your Google account’ option in the Google app, of course.
2. Here you’ll need to tap the ‘Manage your data & personalisation’ option, followed by the “web & app activity option” from the list of activity controls. This same process will apply for location history, which sits under this option.
3. On the Web & App activity page, you’ll need to tap the ‘Manage Activity’ option and you will see a new web page open up, which can be seen below.
4. Here you’ll have the option to ‘choose to delete automatically’ front and center. Tap on it for Google to select any of the 3 time duration options and hit ‘Next’ to confirm your pick.
Well, you have now configured the Google account to auto-delete your activity data and location history (coming really soon) older than the specified time limit. Google plans to bring the auto-deletion control to more of the privacy options, with the aforementioned rolling out to all in the coming weeks. Are you relieved to have this new feature? Let us know in the comments below.
