Google is providing you with additional management over however long you would like the technology company to retain your location history and internet activity information.
Google has introduced a replacement, an easier, privacy-focused auto-delete feature for your Google account which will permit you to delete your Location History and internet and App Activity information automatically after a certain time.
Google’s Location History feature, if enabled, permits the corporate to trace locations that you simply have visited, whereas internet and App Activity tracks websites you recently visited and applications you used.
Until now, Google allowed you to either altogether disable the location History and internet and App Activity feature or manually delete all or a part of that information, providing no controls for normal deletion so users will manage their information expeditiously.
Last year, an AP investigation discovered that although you can switch off the location history feature in all your accounts, Google services on Android and iPhone devices can still track your movements. Just last month, it absolutely was conjointly discovered that Google maintains information containing elaborate location records from many countless phones around the world, referred to as Sensorvault, that is reportedly being employed by enforcement agencies to unravel crime cases.
Following the revelation, U.S. Congress last week asked Google corporate executive Sundar Pichai to issue an appointment by May 10 on a series of queries on however the Sensorvault info is employed and shared by the corporate.
After considerations and feedback from users over their information, Google introduced the new auto-delete feature, permitting users to currently choose how long they need their location and net activity information to be saved on the company’s servers by providing them to choose which option they prefer out of the three below:
- Keep till I delete manually
- Automatically delete after Three (3) months
- Automatically delete after Eighteen (18) months
For users who don’t need the company to ever to trace their location or internet and application history, they should simply put off their “Location History” and “Web and App Activity” settings. According to Google, the auto-delete feature for Location History and internet & App Activity will be rolled out in the approaching weeks.
Source: TheHacker News