How to manage your Google location data

Google knows everything about it. It knows who you are. It knows what you like. It knows which places you visit frequently. It also knows all the places that you have been to and where you will go next.

What’s more? If you have signed into Google Maps on your smartphone (which most of us do), it literally knows when you are on a move. That sounds scary enough to make you log off all your devices and keep them locked away in some dark corner of your home. But it doesn’t have to be all that scary as Google offers you ample controls that let you pick and choose how much location data you want to share with the company.

So, here’s a step-by-step description of how you can manage your location data:

Step 1: Sign into your Google Account.

Step 2: Click on ‘Manage your data and personalisation’ option.

Step 3: Scroll down to Activity Controls and click on the Location History button.

Step 4: Toggle the Location History button if you don’t want Google to store your location data.

Step 5: Tap on the Auto Delete button to set 3 months or 18 months as the limit when your location data is automatically wiped clean.

Step 6: Tap on Manage Activity button to see a record of all the places that Google knows you have been to.

Step 7: To delete the entire record of your location data, click on the Trash icon that is placed on the right corner of the map.