Google now lets you auto-delete location and activity data

Google is now beginning to roll out its location history auto-delete feature after announcing it back in May. The tool comes after an emphasis on user privacy this past developer conference season, where companies like Google and Apple both said they would begin rolling out tools to let customers have more control over what data they share with the companies or third-party apps.

One of the criticisms, however, was that much of the work was still reliant upon the user to set up. Location tracking and web / app activity history on Google, for example, is kept until users manually delete them by default (the company says this is to improve user experience, ad targeting, and search personalizations). With the new tool, you can now set your tracking preferences to delete in three- or 18-month intervals.

The good news here is Google says it will delete any data older than 18 months automatically, so even if you forget it set it up, the company will begin to purge data on your behalf no matter what.

The feature is rolling out over the next few weeks globally on both Android and iOS.