How To Flip Off Your Google Location Historical past

Google Maps has launched tons of revolutionary options through the years, from 3D driving instructions to telling you the way crowded a enterprise is. One explicit function is extra divisive: your location timeline, which logs all over the place you have traveled for later reference. As helpful as this selection might be, maybe serving to you recall the identify of a restaurant you stumbled upon way back, it could possibly additionally really feel like an invasion of privateness.

For many individuals, having a log of your location continuously operating within the background is an excessive amount of like Massive Brother. If that knowledge fell into the fallacious fingers, somebody may study lots about you. It is price noting that Google has shifted from storing your location historical past on the cloud to domestically in your machine until you carry out a handbook backup, however the need to cease one of many some ways you are being tracked remains to be comprehensible. Fortunately, turning off Google’s location historical past function is straightforward.

You’ll be able to globally flip off your Google Maps Timeline utilizing the Location settings in Google’s My Exercise panel. Nonetheless, since Timeline knowledge comes out of your cellphone and might solely be seen there, you would possibly want to change these settings out of your cellphone for completeness. 

These settings are device-specific, so in case you additionally use Maps on a pill or second cellphone, you may must undergo the method once more there. In the event you ever wish to flip it again on, comply with the identical directions, however choose Activate throughout the last step as a substitute.

1. Open the Google Maps app, then faucet your profile image positioned on the best aspect of the search bar.

2. Choose Your timeline.

3. Hit the three dots on the top-right nook, then select Location and privateness settings.

4. Choose Timeline.

5. From the dropdown menu, choose Flip off to cease utilizing the function however maintain current knowledge, or Flip off and delete exercise to additionally clear all historic knowledge.

In the event you’d relatively maintain current areas accessible for some time however clear them up sometimes, you may handle your auto-delete settings on this similar menu. Scroll all the way down to the part labeled Auto-delete and choose Select an auto-delete possibility. From the dropdown checklist, choose whether or not you’d prefer to delete exercise older than three, 18, or 36 months. Additionally on this web page, you may see just a few Subsettings that management different methods this knowledge can be utilized.

The opposite pages visited alongside this path supply choices for fine-grained management. On the principle Timeline web page, faucet the Backup (cloud) icon on the high to allow or disable an encrypted backup of your machine’s Timeline knowledge to your Google account. Use the Pencil icon on the bottom-right to edit or delete a given day. On the Location & privateness web page, you may Export Timeline knowledge to again it up on one other machine, or Delete vary of Timeline knowledge if you must clear lots.