How to stop Google keeping your data

Google is now allowing users to change how much data it keeps, but you'll need to go and change some settings.

The web giant previously allowed users to select an option that would delete all their data for web and app activity, location history, device information, voice activity, YouTube search history and YouTube voice history, NZME reports.

Users can now decide if they want Google to keep the data for three months, eighteen months or not at all before it gets deleted.

Users will need to go into the Activity Controls section of Google Chrome to do this though, so here's a step-by-step guide:

  1. Open Google Chrome
  2. Click the three vertical dots in the top right corner next to your profile picture
  3. Hit "settings"
  4. Click "Manage your Google Account"
  5. Click "Manage your data and personalisation"
  6. Click "Manage your activity controls"
  7. Click "Manage activity" underneath web and app activity
  8. Click "Choose how long to keep" and select how long you want the data stored
  9. Hit next.

If you want to eliminate steps one through to four you can go to myaccount.google.com.

Newshub.