Google Introduces New Feature to Auto-Delete Your Location and Activity Data

Knowing that our apps gather boatloads of info about us — some for years — can be unsettling . Google ’s various apps are chief among these , and the party pronounce it has hear user requests to make managing their data a unsubdivided process . The companyannouncedWednesday that it ’s rolling out a new feature to allow users to auto - delete their positioning and activity data after 3 or 18 months .

harmonise toTechCrunch , the feature will extend to a exploiter ’s browsing chronicle in Chrome , as well as in - app information and the Google Discover feature for Android . When asked by Gizmodo for ratification , Google would not substantiate how far the auto - delete feature extend across its product but it should go for to services that use your Google login .

This is a fairly clean and welcome feature . Google already has tool in place to turn location or app activity data on or off , and user can still delete their data point manually . But no one has the time for that , and this new feature will belike still allow Google apps to service user need while also wipe their data within a fair timeframe . Google cut through some of your activity can make your browse more convenient in the short - term but no one wants that data sit around around evermore .

Image: Carsten Koall (Getty)

A Google spokesperson separate Gizmodo by email that the company landed on 3- and 18 - calendar month timeframes after it rule they were preferred by users , as the data can be representative of a three - calendar month time of year or multiple seasons .

Google said this feature article will first get in for location data before later expanding to entanglement and app data “ in the coming weeks . ”

Is this go to free Google of all of itsdata collectionandprivacysins ? No . But the feature is a welcome serenity offer from a society whose datum collection is damn nearinescapable . And while it certainly does n’t harbour users from all the information the company pile up on them , hey , I ’ll take it .