San Francisco, Oct 3, 2019-
Google has launched couple of privacy-focused tools in its services like Maps and YouTube to protect its users’ data, including new ways to use Google apps with Incognito Mode, and options to automatically delete data like your Location History, searches and other activities.
In May, Google announced that users could automatically delete Location History and Web and App Activity, which includes things they have searched and browsed.
“We’re bringing Auto-delete to YouTube History. Set the time period to keep your data — 3 months, 18 months, or until you delete it, just like Location History and Web & App Activity — and we’ll take care of the rest,” Google said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Incognito Mode” that has been one of the most popular privacy controls since it launched with Chrome in 2008 and came to YouTube earlier this year is now being rolled out in Google Maps.
“When you turn on ‘Incognito Mode’ in Maps, your Maps activity on that device, like the places you search for, won’t be saved to your Google Account and won’t be used to personalise your Maps experience,” said Eric Miraglia, Director of Product Management, Privacy and Data Protection Office at Google.
Users can turn on “Incognito Mode” by selecting it from the menu that appears when they tap profile photo, and can turn it off at any time to return to a personalised experience with restaurant recommendations, information about commute, and other features.
Incognito mode will start rolling out on Android this month, with iOS coming soon.
The company said it is also adding new ways to understand and manage your data in Google Assistant.
“First, when you ask questions like ‘Hey Google, how do you keep my data safe?’ the Assistant will share information about how we keep your data private and secure,” the company added.
In the coming weeks, users will be able to delete Assistant activity from Google Account just by saying things like “Hey Google, delete the last thing I said to you” or “Hey Google, delete everything I said to you last week.”
Google password manager currently automatically protects passwords across different accounts.
“We’re introducing the Password Checkup, a new feature that — with one click — tells you if any of your passwords are weak, whether you’ve reused them across multiple sites, or if we’ve discovered they’ve been compromised (for example, in a third-party data breach),” Google announced.
In May, the company opened the new Google Safety Engineering Center where it expects the number of privacy engineers to double by the end of 2019.
