• Search Engine Land
  • Sections
    • SEO
    • SEM
    • Local
    • Retail
    • Google
    • Bing
    • Social
    • Resources
    • More
    • Home
  • Search Engine Land
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social
  • Resources
  • Live
  • More
  • Events
  • SUBSCRIBE

Search Engine Land

Search Engine Land
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social
  • Resources
  • More
  • Newsletters
  • Home
Analytics & Conversion

Google will now auto-delete your location history after 18 months

The update is part of a number of new privacy changes being implemented.

Greg Sterling on June 25, 2020 at 5:17 pm
  • More

Ahead of next week’s California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) enforcement deadline of July 1, Google announced a number of new privacy updates. The company doesn’t mention CCPA in its blog post, but the timing is probably not entirely coincidental.

Location History 18 month expiration. The primary announcement concerns Google Location History and a new 18 month, default auto-delete policy. Location history is opt-in (it wasn’t always). But if it’s turned on, user location data will now automatically be deleted after 18 months. Users can also delete their location data manually or set auto-delete to happen at three month intervals.

Today, auto-delete must be activated by the user. That will no longer be the case going forward. This is part of a broader set of moves by Google to give users more control over their (location) data over the past year or so after several location-data related scandals.

Auto-Delete Location History

Follows last year’s auto-delete options. Last May, Google introduced auto-delete options for search, voice, YouTube activity and Location History. It allowed users to manually delete or auto-delete their data after 3 months or 18 months, but the settings needed to be enabled by users. 

Beyond Location History, Google says it’s going to bring auto-delete to most of its products for new accounts:

  • Web & App activity auto-delete will also default to 18 months for new accounts.
  • For new YouTube accounts auto-delete will be set to 36 months.
  • Users of existing accounts will maintain their current settings and need to manually adjust them, but Google says it will prompt users to do so.

Google clarifies, however, that “default retention periods will not apply to other products like Gmail, Drive and Photos, which are designed to safely store your personal content.”

Privacy settings and Incognito mode. Google is also going to make privacy settings and controls more easily discoverable in search results. If users are signed in, “you’ll be able to search for things like ‘Google Privacy Checkup’ and ‘Is my Google Account secure?’ and a box only visible to you will show your privacy and security settings so you can easily review or adjust them.”

It’s also making it easier to use Search, Maps and YouTube in Incognito mode in mobile, by “long-pressing” your account profile image in the upper right. That will quickly turn on Incognito mode, which can then be turned off again equally easily.

Why we care. It’s very easy to be cynical about Google’s privacy changes, though in fairness to the company it has been improving things over time and making privacy easier to understand and more accessible. Google says that more than 200 million people annually use its Privacy Checkup tools, to which the company is adding “proactive recommendations” for users.

But there’s also clearly a way in which this is about PR and Google’s reputation. If users are confident that their data will automatically disappear they may be more inclined to opt-in to Location History. And anonymous searching may also prevent some defections to more privacy friendly search engines such as DuckDuckGo.

In making these changes, it’s unlikely that Google is sacrificing anything from a data or ad-targeting perspective — 18 months is a very long data retention period. In fact, just the opposite: if users feel more confident and engage with Location History, rather than shun it entirely, it will directly benefit Google and its advertisers.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.



About The Author

Greg Sterling
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.

Related Topics

Channel: Analytics & ConversionGoogleGoogle: Maps & LocalGoogle: PrivacyGoogle: YouTube & VideoLegalLegal: Privacy

We're listening.

Have something to say about this article? Share it with us on Facebook, Twitter or our LinkedIn Group.

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

Lorem ipsum doler this is promo text about SMX events.

April 13, 2021: SMX Create

May 18-19, 2021: SMX London

June 8-9, 2021: SMX Paris

June 15-16, 2021: SMX Advanced

June 21-22, 2021: SMX Advanced Europe

August 17, 2021: SMX Convert

November 9-10, 2021: SMX Next

December 14, 2021: SMX Code

Available On-Demand: SMX

Available On-Demand: SMX Report

×


Learn More About Our SMX Events

Discover actionable tactics that can help you overcome crucial marketing challenges. Our next conference will be held:

Next Event: Sept. 14-15, 2021

Available On-Demand: March 2021

Available On-Demand: October 2020

×

Attend MarTech - Click Here


Learn More About Our MarTech Events

White Papers

  • Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms
  • Selecting a Customer Data Platform For Your Organization: The 2020 Gartner Market Guide
  • The Complete Guide to Web Core Vitals
  • The New Era of Automation in SEO
  • Nielsen Annual Marketing Report: Era of Adaptation
See More Whitepapers

Webinars

  • Drive Customer Engagement with the Power of Personalization
  • 7 Use Cases That Prove Why You Should Implement DAM
  • Accelerate Your SEO & Content Marketing Program with 4 Key Milestones
See More Webinars

Research Reports

  • Local Marketing Solutions for Multi-Location Businesses
  • Enterprise Digital Asset Management Platforms
  • Identity Resolution Platforms
  • Customer Data Platforms
  • B2B Marketing Automation Platforms
  • Call Analytics Platforms
See More Research

Attend SMX For Only $149

h
Receive daily search news and analysis.

Channels

  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social

Our Events

  • SMX
  • MarTech

Resources

  • White Papers
  • Research
  • Webinars

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS
  • Youtube

© 2021 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Your privacy means the world to us. We share your personal information only when you give us explicit permission to do so, and confirm we have your permission each time. Learn more by viewing our privacy policy.Ok