Google CEO Sundar Pichai Reveals New Data Privacy Features

Staff Reporter, Tech Times 25 June 2020, 04:06 am

BGR reported that Google seeks to give users more control over their data. On June 24, Wednesday, CEO Sundari Pichai detailed in his latest blog post the plans of the company to improve privacy on its platforms.

This will include changes to the company's data retention practices among its core products to keep lesser data by default. Plus there will likewise be new Incognito mode features and privacy tools.

In the latest Google blog post, Pichai wrote, he revealed these new features and the company's future plans.

He said, "We believe that products should keep your information for only as long as it's useful and helpful to you - whether that's being able to find your favourite destinations in Maps or getting recommendations for what to watch on YouTube."

Furthermore, he explained this is the reason the company is introducing the auto-delete controls over the previous year, which gives users the continuously delete their searches, voice, and location history, as well as activity with YouTube, after three months of 18 months.

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Data retention

Google is also planning to alter its data retention practices once more and this time, enabling the auto-delete features for core activity settings. The company has enabled this in the past, but there are differences today. When a Google user turns on location history, which is initially off by default, the auto-delete feature will be set to 18 months, the report added.

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This deletion of activities over the web and app will now also default to 18 months with new accounts. What does this mean? User activity data will be continuously and automatically deleted after 18 months rather than stored unless you customize to delete them. Users can change up the settings.

Google will also not be changing settings for users who have the location history turned on, as well as their web and app activities. However, it will actively send reminders to users on these auto-delete controls through emails and in-product notifications, BGR said.

On YouTube

The company is also bringing changes to the auto-delete features on YouTube. These will be set to three years by default for new accounts and users who turn on YouTube history for the first time from now and onwards.

Pichai said, "This improves upon current industry practice and ensures that YouTube can continue to make relevant entertainment recommendations based on what you've watched or listened to in the past - like letting you know if your favourite series has released another season, or when your favourite artist has a new album."

However, these retention periods do not apply to other products such as Photos, Drive, and Gmail. These are designed to store personal content as long as users require access to these.