Google’s apps and services have become increasingly common to a point where it’s difficult to navigate the internet without using one of its products. It is also common knowledge that the search engine giant collects activity data to improve the user experience which has gotten the company involved in controversy time and time again.
This one of the reasons why Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced changes to the way the company handles privacy and data collection.
Google is introducing privacy setting upgrades which will help control data that is being shared better than before. This type of data ranges from search history, Google logs, location data, YouTube history, voice commands through Google Assistant, and more.
Last year, Google introduced a new feature that automatically deletes user data every 3 or 18 months. This will now be active by default for everyone, meaning that it will automatically delete search history, location history, and voice commands every 18 months.
YouTube will be programmed to delete activity data every 3 years so it can continue to make relevant recommendations since user preferences tend to change over time.
In case anyone does not have the setting enabled, Google will send people frequent reminders to promote the new options. The frequency of these reminders will be adjustable in settings.
Additionally, Google will make it easier to check in on Account controls. This can be done by simply searching for “Google Privacy Checkup” and then searching “Is my Google Account secure?”. There will also be a shortcut to quickly switch to Incognito Mode. This can be done by long-pressing your profile picture in the top right corner in Google Search, YouTube, and Maps.
All of these changes should be arriving on Android devices soon.
