It is now slightly easier to opt out of Google’s panopticon, with the introduction of new controls from the search engine to automatically clear your data after a set period of time.
By default, Google saves a permanent history of everything a user has searched for, every website they have visited, activity from any other app, site or device that uses Google services, and a record of their physical movements gleaned from using Google Maps or an Android device.
Users have always been able to turn off – or “pause” – that tracking in a settings page, Activity Controls, and, if they remember to, they can manually clear the saved information using the Delete Activity page. But both those options have downsides: if tracking is turned off entirely, some Google products and services no longer work, while deleting activity manually can be a chore, particularly for users with more than one Google account.
In May, the company launched the ability to delete saved information automatically after a fixed period of time (three or 18 months are the only options). The feature initially only covered “web and app activity”, but now, Google has announced its expansion to location history.
Again, users have been able to delete location history manually through a fairly hidden setting on the Google Maps timeline, where an unlabelled trashcan icon in the bottom right of the screen will clear history. But this marks the first time a user can easily track their movements in the short term while regularly cleaning their records.
The setting is not yet available on the web, but users of the iOS and Android Google apps will start to see the setting as it “rolls out”, the company says. That should allow the best of both worlds, allowing users to gain some of the benefits of location history, like looking up the name of that nice cafe they wandered into last week, without the risk of building up a long-term record of their every movement.
Other activity records still need manual attention. The company allows users to manually delete recordings of their voices made by the Google Assistant, and their search and viewing history on YouTube, but will not yet automate those deletions, although users can again opt out of storing that information entirely.
And all of those settings only affect Google’s consumer-facing records and personalisation. The information the company collects for adverts is a mandatory part of using Google services, although a separate setting allows users to turn off ad personalisation.
“You should always be able to manage your data in a way that works best for you – and we’re committed to giving you the best controls to make that happen,” Google said in a statement when it first announced the new controls.