How to Automatically Delete Your Google Data and Why You Need It
Google collects a lot of data that is used to make recommendations for content on services such as Google Play and YouTube, and to serve you ads based on your activity.
We’ve talked about this practice a lot , but with a loan from Google, the company gave users more control over the ultimate fate of the data it collects . This includes the ability to automatically delete this data at regular recurring intervals. We’ve discussed some of these issues in the past, but in light of some recent updates to Google’s privacy settings, we’re going to show you how to automatically delete your data in as many Google services as possible.
First, let’s look at data that can be deleted automatically, which Google divides into three different categories:
- History of the Internet and Applications. This includes voice and audio data from Google Assistant and other apps; data collected from apps synced with your Google account; the entire browsing history of Chrome.
- YouTube search and browsing history
- Google Maps history and GPS location data
All of this data can be accessed from the action bar of your Google account, but before we get into setting up automatic deletion, let’s talk about why you need it .
One of the reasons is the increased privacy it provides , especially when it comes to your location and data on Google maps. However, your YouTube story is very different from sensitive content like, say, your name, social security number, or banking information – all of which Google handles differently, and there are separate tools to manage that data.
A more obvious reason is that deleting your data helps keep content (and ads) updated. People change, our tastes evolve, and periodically deleting your outdated content history is like updating YouTube, Google Play, or even Google Podcast recommendations with your current interests in mind.
How to automatically delete your Google data
The process is almost identical on both mobile devices and the web. We’ll focus on the latter, but the former is easy to figure out:
- Go to your google actions dashboard (you need to sign in with your google account first).
- Click Action Controls in the left sidebar.
- Scroll down to the type of data you want to manage, then select Manage Activity.
- On this next page, click on “Select a retention period” under the calendar icon.
- Select the desired automatic deletion time (three or 18 months) or you can delete your data manually.
- Click Next to save your changes.
- Repeat these steps for each type of data that you want to delete automatically. Specifically, for location history, you need to first click Today in the upper left corner and then click the gear icon in the lower right corner of the screen. Then select “Automatically delete location history” and choose a time.