How to delete location and search history automatically on Google

It’s a well-known fact that Google collects location, web, and app activities from users when using Google Search, YouTube, and other services to learn their behavior to accurately serve ads and improve the user experience.

As a result of privacy concerns, Google is now gradually rolling out a new feature that users can select manually to automatically delete location history, web, and app activities from their accounts.

You can always disable the collection of this data, but the new settings should help to have a more personal experience while using Google services, and protecting your privacy a little better.

In this guide, you’ll learn to set how long Google is allowed to keep your data before deleting it. Also, we’ll look at the steps to disable location history, web, and apps activities entirely on your Google account.

• How to delete location and search history automatically on Google
• How to disable location and search history on Google

How to delete location and search history automatically on Google

Use these steps to delete location and activity history automatically on Google:

1. Open your Google Account.

2. Click on Data & Personalization from the left pane.

3. Under the “Activity controls” section, click the Manage your activity controls option.

   

4. Under the “Web & App Activity” (or “Location History”) section, click the Manage activity button.

   

5. Click the Choose how long to keep button.

   

6. Select one of the three options:

   • Keep until I delete manually (default).
   • Keep for 18 months.
   • Keep for 3 months.

   

7. Click the Next button.

8. Click the Confirm button.

   

9. Click the Got it button.

Once you complete the steps, all your web and app activities older than the day you specified will be deleted automatically.

How to disable location and search history on Google

Use these steps to disable location and activity data collection on Google:

1. Open your Google Account.

2. Click on Data & Personalization from the left pane.

3. Under the “Activity controls” section, click the Manage your activity controls option.

   

4. Under the “Activity controls” section, turn off the toggle switch for Web & App Activity (and Location History).

   

5. Click the Pause button.

   

After you complete the steps, Google should no longer collect your activities or locations when using its services.

While the option to disable location and activity data collection has been around for a long time, the ability to delete your history automatically after 3 or 18 months are new features rolling out gradually to users.