Google Maps Location History is a tool like no other. And this can be seen in a negative way (Google is spying on us) or in a positive way (it’s great to be able to reference the itinerary I followed on holiday).

This data can be really useful, and Google has already offered ways to automatically delete it if we prefer to have no record of it. They actually launched Incognito mode for Google Maps in 2019, but recently they made even stronger changes to control this location data and protect our privacy.

This location history, disabled by default, is what powers Google Maps Chronology (English, Timeline), which until now has served as a tool for managing this history. For example, we can delete it or disable it completely, but we can also edit the chronology if we see that there are errors in a route or place we went to.

Google now offers new privacy controls for those who enable location history. This information is coming soon It will be saved on your own device, not on Google servers in the cloud..

This allows users to now have full control over this data, being able to delete it fully or partially at any time and enable or disable the function at any time.

When we enable location history for the first time, the option to automatically delete this data after three months will be set by default: all information older than this will be deleted automatically and transparently for the user.

The difference with the previous configuration is important because Before this the period was 18 months. However, if we want to keep this data for a longer period of time, we can do this through the vehicle’s controls.

Very soon we will also have access to more detailed control of certain places we have been to. We can search for any site on Google Maps and, if we wish, eliminate related searches, addresses or visits to that location.

The blue dot showing our location on Maps now has more options. By touching the screen we will see whether our location history or chronology preferences are active and from there we can change these parameters.

Such changes allow us to opt out of such records of our activities if we so choose, and such changes. more benefits for users and more control over privacy. The company hasn’t been very good in the past, but these measures certainly seem like a step in the right direction… and it couldn’t be said any better.

It is important to note that when we delete data from Google Maps from the cloud, it will be permanently deleted; So, if we want to access this data in the future, it might not be a bad idea to download a copy of this data. The move to this new model, where data is stored on our mobile phone rather than in the cloud, is excellent news for those concerned about privacy.

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