Google is introducing a new feature for your Google account that will allow you to automatically delete your Location History and Web and App Activity data after a set period of time. You’ll be able to delete the data after either three or 18 months, and it will then continue to be deleted on a rolling basis over time.
tech giants are now more transparent with their users about how their data is used and collected. Easy-to-understand privacy policies are now the norm, and several companies even offer the GDPR’s mandated data deletion tools to all customers, whether they’re in the EU or not.
Google, for example, does let you delete data it’s gathered about you so far. However, it’s only a temporary measure; you can’t permanently stop the company from learning about your search habits, location history, and more (though you can temporarily “pause” many of these functions).
In order to entirely stop your location from being tracked, you need to dig through your settings to also turn off the “Web and App Activity” setting. The feature being announced today deletes data for both, meaning that it should cover every bit of the location history data Google holds on you.
Google says it’s rolling out the new feature worldwide “in the coming weeks” and that it will be available in addition to the existing options that allow you to delete this data manually. The company also mentions that Location History and Web and App Activity data are the first two bits of user data the feature will be available for, suggesting that the option might soon be available for more of your data.
