Google To Automatically Erase New User’s Location Data, Browser History After 18 Months 

Technology giant Google has announced that in a bid to minimise data collection it will automatically delete its new user’s location history after 18 months for along with deleting web and app activity. 

“Starting today, the first time you turn on Location History — which is off by default — your auto-delete option will be set to 18 months by default. Web & App Activity auto-delete will also default to 18 months for new accounts. This means your activity data will be automatically and continuously deleted after 18 months, rather than kept until you choose to delete it. You can always turn these settings off or change your auto-delete option,” the company said in a blog post.

The California-based company which also owns YouTube says, Youtube user’s viewing history will auto-delete after 36 months by default for a new account. Current users can still choose from 3 or 18 months of auto-delete option.

The announcement comes as Google and other Big Tech companies' data-collection efforts and business practices have faced heightened scrutiny.

Though the changes apply to new accounts only, existing users will shortly be displayed new prompts to adjust their settings. In 2019, Google gave its users the ability to manually wipe out their data from the company's servers.