Google Sets Limit on How Long It Will Store Some Data

After years of criticism about how it keeps a record of what people do online, Google said it would start automatically deleting location history and records of web and app activity as well as voice recordings on new accounts after 18 months. The limited change comes after Google introduced an option last year to allow users to automatically delete data related to their web searches, requests made with the company’s virtual assistant and their location history. At the time, it offered users the ability to erase the data after three months or 18 months. The policy sets Google accounts to delete that data by default on new accounts, instead of requiring users to go into the product’s settings to change to an option to delete. The settings on existing accounts will remain unchanged. Google did not alter the settings for existing accounts because it did not want to upset users with an unexpected change. However, the company said it planned to alert users to the ability to change the deletion settings in emails and promotions on its products.