Google says that it is changing its data retention practices for Search and location history to help limit the amount of data that's collected, and for how long. While not a radical change, it is still progress for a company that is seen as one of the biggest data collectors around. Here's exactly what Google announced and what it means.

Data privacy is an issue for tech companies and in recent years, the public has come to know a lot more about the extent to which data collection takes place, and especially with certain companies. For tech giants like Google and Facebook, data fuels their advertising businesses and also helps to run their powerful recommendation algorithms, including on services like YouTube and Instagram. Google in particular is seen as the 'big data collector' as its mobile and desktop users tend to operate within its digital ecosystem, instead of simply accessing a social media platform. For example, Google Search is the most popular search engine, and it is also a massive data collector. While the company claims that user data is secure and responsibly used, it is difficult to take that at face value.

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In a recent blog post, Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, explained that the company is making auto-delete the default option for location history. This change applies when the use of location data is activated for the first time. In addition, for those that set up a new account now or in the future, the auto-delete feature for web and app activity will be enabled by default. A slew of other privacy updates were announced, along with the location and web activity change.

Google's Auto-Delete 'Gift' To Users

Since last year, Google has been allowing users to enable the auto-delete feature and have it automatically clear on a three or eighteen-month basis. Now, the company has set eighteen months as the default option. When new users open a Google Account, their web and app activity will be automatically set to auto-delete in eighteen months. However, for those users who had previously enabled location history, Google won't be making any active changes to their settings. Although the company says it will inform them through in-app notifications and emails of the auto-delete feature, in case they want to make any changes.

To make manual changes, users will need to go to their Google account's home page and open "Data & personalization" within the settings menu. Then select "Activity Controls," "Web & App Activity," or "Location History" and then turn on auto-delete and set the preferred time period. The same can also be done with YouTube history as well. In addition, Google is making it easier for users to access their privacy settings and take a "Google Privacy Checkup" by simple searching for it through Search. Similarly, users can access Incognito mode easier in the Search, Maps and YouTube apps by simply long-pressing their profile picture and selecting the mode from the drop-down menu.

While this announcement is a step in the right direction, it is still a relatively minor one. Google, and others, still need to do much more to ensure data privacy is sufficiently protected and responsibly used. Although, any widespread changes might prove difficult for companies like Google, considering how valuable data is today, and how much more valuable it is likely to become in future.

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Source: Google