Google announced this Friday (16/07) an additional tool to protect the privacy of search history on the service. The measure follows the tone of the recent speech adopted by the company at the launch of Android 12, focusing on data transparency, and also on personalization and security in the use of the platform.
One of the new features announced by Google is the introduction of an additional tool for checking search history. Once the feature is activated, in order to access the history, the user must provide additional information to the platform, such as the main account password or two-step authentication. This feature can be useful when the user shares a device with other people and does not want them to have access to their searches.
It's important to note, however, that this feature only works if you allow Google to save your search history in the Web & App Activity section. If you don't enable this setting, the company will stop this integration, but it can still temporarily — at least in theory — use information from recent searches to improve the quality of the session. Previously, the extra check for activity history was already available for location history and YouTube.
Google's new privacy protection tool adds extra privacy protection to your search history (Reproduction/Vida Celular)
Auto-delete control
Another privacy protection tool implemented by Google is the automatic deletion control. Through this feature, the user can automatically delete activities on the service that are older than three, 18 or 36 months. In new accounts, the default automatic deletion option for web activity is 18 months (one and a half years), but the user can update the settings.
On iOS, you'll be able to delete the last 15 minutes of saved search history with a single tap. The feature is expected to roll out to Android later this year.
Tool automatically excludes activities older than three, 18 or 36 months in the search tool (Reproduction/Vida Celular)
“People around the world turn to Google to find information and make important decisions,” said JK Kearns, the company’s director of search products, about the new features. “We’re committed to ensuring you can do so with the security and privacy you expect.”
Kearns also said that Google works hard to remove dangerous sites from its search engine. According to the executive, every day, the service's systems detect about 40 billion spam pages.
